An extremely specific metaphor rant.

[full_metal_ox]

There are right reasons to describe something as "exactly the color of dried blood

Comments

[kosaginolegion]

Careful tipping Red-Caps, though. They're foul tempered little gnomes and could take offense no matter how much you give them. And tipping them over can definitely be a hazardous undertaking.

*ponders the question as to the exact shade of cap a Red-Cap wears.*

[full_metal_ox]

On the other hand, I suspect hard-working railway porters will take offense if you stiff them their fair buck-per-bag.

(And don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side.)

[pathology_doc]

a scare chord, as an automatic tag that the character possessing the deep red attribute is EEEVILLLL. That's not only lazy writing

I'd have thought there was still a place for this, if used appropriately. I gather the author did not do so.

Chanel's "Vamp" nail polish

Vamp with a side-serving of -ire, I presume? :p

[full_metal_ox]

I'd have thought there was still a place for this, if used appropriately. I gather the author did not do so.

You might have observed from my posting history on fanficrants that I've been a frequent defender of purple prose when the shade is correct--a Heian courtier and a hard-boiled private eye will have entirely different ranges of vivid metaphors-- and the writer wields the inkbrush deftly; it's the "exactly", I think, that crosses the line.

Vamp with a side-serving of -ire, I presume? :p

Precisely; Vamp would prove to be the gateway product that brought nail polish colors in the black/brown/oxblood range from the goth periphery into mainstream fashion, the turning point being Uma Thurman's choice of the color in Pulp Fiction.

[pathology_doc]

and the writer wields the inkbrush deftly; it's the "exactly", I think, that crosses the line.

Oh well, even the most deft handling of the inkbrush occasionally yields an imperfect splotch.

the turning point being Uma Thurman's choice of the color in Pulp Fiction.

In which she arguably plays the other sort of vamp...

[full_metal_ox]

Not that there isn't a direct etymological connection between the two, of course; the term "vamp" to denote a femme fatale derives from Theda Bara's performance in the silent film The Vampire, which in turn was based on a stage play inspired by Kipling's poem "The Vampire"--which was representative of any number of fin de siècle images of supernaturally-alluring Belle Dames Sans Merci, such as Alraune and Dracula's brides.