Beige Prose: Difference between revisions

Witty when effective. Otherwise, dull. Use carefully.

Contrast [[Wall of Text]], [[Purple Prose]].

== Advertising ==

{{quote|A Miss<br />

A Curve<br />

== Comics ==

* ''[[Dilbert]]''

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

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

She put the old sheets in the laundry basket. }}

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

* Anything by [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/923867/S_Michael S-Michael].

* ''[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."

* A good majority of what [http://www.fanfiction.net/~incendiarist Incendiarist] writes is in this style. Notable is ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6799182/1/ Perennial Tears (Descend In Gems)].'' Because [[Tropes Are Not Bad]].

''("What did I say?")'' }}

* ''[[The Darker Knight]]''

* [[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.

* Albert Camus' ''[[The Stranger]]''. Done to ape Hemingway, and Meursault is ''supposed'' to be emotionally detached.

* The ''[[X Wing Series]]'''

** Michael A. Stackpole. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Great]] [[TV Tropes Made of Win Archive|ideas]]. Plain description.

** [[Aaron Allston]], from the same series, is completely different. The shift is a bit shocking, moreso when it switches back.

* ''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.

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'': In-story; "[[Newspeak]]".

* Charles Bukowski tells you only what you need to know. Very rarely uses multisyllabic words. The times when he breaks those rules are powerful.

* ''[[One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'', being narrated by a simple ''zek''.

* [[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.

** This leads to several instances where the text would really have flowed better if the sentences were joined together. Instead, almost every sentence starts with "and", and almost all of them are short.

** 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'.

== New Media ==

* [[Twitter]] posts [http://twitter.com/search?q=%23tvtropes #tvtropes]

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

* SEO copy.

{{quote| Water<br />

(''Grapefruit'', 1964) }}

== Video Games ==

* ''[[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.