Beige Prose: Difference between revisions

 

A [[Terse Talker]] speaks in this.<ref>Brevity doesn't on its own make prose beige. The defining characteristic is that it's unadorned and to the point.</ref>

{{examples}}

* [[Head On]]. Apply directly to the forehead. [[Head On]]. Apply directly to the forehead. [[Head On]]. Apply directly to the forehead.

* [[Burma-Shave]]:

 

* ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' Rorschach speaks in short sentences and sentence fragments. His journal doesn't. Must remember to investigate further.

* ''[[Sin City]]''.

{{quote|"Old Man Dies. Young girl lives. Fair trade."}}

 

* An entire subgenre called "[[Script Fic|script format]]", by people who have no idea what a script is.

* ''[[My Immortal]]'', [[Costume Porn|usually.]] Except when discussing <s>Enoby</s> <s>Ebory</s> <s>Ebola</s> Ebony's appearance. Then it turns [[Purple Prose|purple]].

** Reads like fiction written by a computer, once offered in ''The Book of Lists II''.

* ''[[Gurren Jesus]]'', a crossover fic. ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' and [[The Bible]]. Makes it better.

* ''[[Dark Secrets]]''. Its sequel? Moreso.{{context}}

* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6089198/1/Daughter_of_Nienor Daughter of Nienor]'': "Only a few months later, the sons of Fëanor came and my world was again destroyed. This time, it was less scary and more sad and annoying, like I was getting used to it."

* ''[[The Darker Knight]]''{{context}}

* ''[[Calvin at Camp]]''{{context}}

 

* [[How Not to Write A Novel]].

* [[Ernest Hemingway]] is known for his simple writing style that lacks flowery language and keeps descriptions to a minimum. He called it "the theory of omission" or "[http://www.lostgeneration.com/hemfaq.htm#iceberg The Iceberg Principle]." While some authors criticized him for it, his style is widely considered to be very effective. Hemingway himself attributed his terse style to his training as a foreign correspondent for the ''Toronto Star''. Because he had to communicate from Europe to North America by the expensive medium of cable, it was naturally expected that he should compose his reports to be as succinct as possible while including all the story's salient information.

* ''The Notebook'' (''The Notebook'', ''The Proof'', and ''The Third Lie'', not [[The Notebook|any other novel]]).

* Cash's sections in ''As I Lay Dying'' by William Faulkner. First section is a list of what to do to properly construct Addie's casket. Next two sections, the third being 1 1/2 sentences long, are about the casket's imbalance.

** According to ''Guinness Book of World Records,'' the shortest correspondence ever.

** "Such brevity is all the more remarkable when one considers that ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]'' contains one of the longest sentences in the French language -- 823 words without a period." Felton and Fowler's ''Best, Worst, and Most Unusual'', p.&nbsp;26

** One could argue, though, that the author is parodying both of these tropes. The default narrator setting is "mockery."

* Much of the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' series is written like this.

* [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Made into an art form]] by minimalist writers from the 70's/80's. Inspired mainly by Hemingway. Most famous: Raymond Carver.

* [[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]], in virtually every sentence. This troper doesn't remember seeing more than ten sentences with multiple clauses.

** This is, of course, done on purpose as the narrator, Stephen, is autistic and so writes his account in a very logical manner avoiding metaphors and such which he considers to be 'lying'.

* Luis Sepúlveda, faithful follower of Hemingway.

** In the words of my Roman History Professor: "Syme wrote in an abrupt, punchy style, writing sentences without verbs, or nouns, or sometimes even words."

 

 

* ''[[Beetleborgs]]'' villain's description of [[Never Recycle Your Schemes|last time they tried this plan]]: "Been there. Done that. Got beat."

* ''[[Screenwipe]]'' once did an hour special on writers. One of them was famed for writing realistic dialogue on [[Eastenders]], his method was to write the sentence and then cut down any unnecessary words. So "See you later, we must do this again some time" would after a series of cuts simply become "Later".

 

* [[Jon Lajoie]]'s "I Kill People" rap is written this way to lay bare common rap subjects. Sample lyrics:

{{quote|''I buy a lot of expensive things, because I have a lot of money

* The Minutemen's "Take 5, D":

{{quote|''Tub has to be properly caulked prior to any showering

** Lyrics taken straight from a landlady's note about a leaky bathtub. D. Boon thought Mike Watt's old lyrics for the song were [[Word Salad Lyrics|"too spacey"]]. He changed them to something mundane.

 

* [[Laconic]], especially Laconic entry on Beige Prose. [[Wiki Word]]s. Also, [[CamelCase]].

* SEO copy.

 

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. Monster datalog. Inversion of ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'''s [[Purple Prose]] bestiaries. Most monsters described as "Unremarkable".

* ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'': Agent Superball talks like this, Mr. President. Short sentences. No emotion.

* Mordin Solus in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. [[Motor Mouth|Rapid delivery]] tends to mask.

* Sten in ''[[Dragon Age]]'', to the point of annoying the player who wants more information.

 

* ''[[The Gungan Council]]'' for some writers. [[Purple Prose|For others]]...

 

* This is the entire shtick of "Blac-U" Weather forecaster Ollie Williams, from ''[[Family Guy]]''. The man gets his weather forecasting across with this, and a combination of [[No Indoor Voice]].

{{quote|'''Tom Tucker:''' We now go to Ollie Williams, for the "Blac-U" weather report. Ollie?

'''Tom Tucker:''' Thanks Ollie. }}

 

* {{smallcaps|telegrams charge per word [[Telegraph Gag STOP|STOP]]}}

* {{smallcaps| &their grandchild txt msgs & [[Twitter]] w/chr lmts}}

* Low-word-count English reports.

* Manuals, memos.

{{quote|"Life should be lived long. Speech should be short!"}}

* The Spartans, whose simplicity of speech gave rise to the word "laconic," after their dialect of Greek.

** When Philip II of Macedon threatened them with the message: "If we enter Sparta, we will [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|raze all your buildings and ravage all your women]]," Sparta sent back the answer, "If." Philip, as well as his son [[Alexander the Great]], left Sparta alone.

* Police reports.

* Many military messages

* [http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Simple English Wikipedia].

* [[wikipedia:The Elements of Style|Omit needless words]].

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fanfic Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]