The Wall Weeps

[David Mascellani]

I would like to know when and how it is appropriate to use
devices such as personification,poetic license and, for wont of
better terms, "strangeness" and "fancifulness".

I ask because I have read instances where a person have a written a a line such as:

"The wall was sad."

And will get a crit that includes:
"This is prose"
"Sad is an abstraction"
" A wall can't be sad!"

I agree with the first two crits.

But why can't, within the realm of fiction, a wall be sad?

Walls (and other inanimate objects) can be very emotional in
films, cartoons, stories and other forms of fiction.

So, again, in poetry, when and how is it all right for a wall
to act differently than a wall normally does?

David

[Gabe1]

Short answer - when it works.

A slightly longer answer but really the same one -

When the poem demands it, or when the device serves the interests of the poem.
There is no more a specific, "if A then B," sort of answer for this question than there is to the question, "when is it appropriate to use a metaphor?"

Yes, "sad" is an abstraction, this is beside the point. Is the abstraction necessary, and does it add to the poem? These questions are more important.

[David Mascellani]

Thanks very much, Gabriel.

[Dunc]

'sad' is an 'abstraction'? Were the wall feeling shitty, would 'shitty' be an abstraction?

It may be that 'the wall was sad' is a bit telly. Still, neither the 'telly' nor the 'prose' crit can really be made without a larger context than four words. Regards / Dunc

[David Mascellani]

Originally posted by Dunc McReil
'sad' is an 'abstraction'? Were the wall feeling shitty, would 'shitty' be an abstraction?
/ Dunc

Without a larger context, it is vague. "feeling shitty" can mean
angry or out of sorts (depressed, sad, down in the dumps)
and sometimes, both angry and out of sorts.


David

[Gabe1]

Originally posted by Dunc McReil
'sad' is an 'abstraction'? Were the wall feeling shitty, would 'shitty' be an abstraction?

It may be that 'the wall was sad' is a bit telly. Still, neither the 'telly' nor the 'prose' crit can really be made without a larger context than four words. Regards / Dunc

*sigh*

To soothe your pedantic spasms -

The larger context was implied by:


"The wall was sad."

And will get a crit that includes:
"This is prose"
"Sad is an abstraction"
" A wall can't be sad!"

I agree with the first two crits.


We are discussing an amalgam of instances in which the position of "sad" as an abstraction has been accepted by the reviewer. This is evident by virtue of the above quote.

While this is all fine and good, it doesn't actually have a thing to do with the question being asked; very much like your post.

-Gabriel

Forest

Trees

[Dunc]

Gabriel

it doesn't actually have a thing to do with the question being asked; very much like your post.

My mistake - I thought you'd already answered the question being asked.

Regards / Dunc