[Leica] Quiet Screaming

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

Well, I have to be a defender of the English language and encourage the
proper use of the terms oxymoron.  This is the Leica list and Leica's
are, among other things, about precision.

Eric Welch wrote:
Such is the oxymoronic term "candid portrait."

Not to pick on Eric (he is much too erudite and careful of most things),
but I hear more and more the misuse of this wonderful-on-the-tongue
word.  

So says the Oxford English Dictionary, volume XI:

A thetorical figure by which contradictory or incongruous terms are
conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; an
expression, in its superficial or literal meaning self-contradictory or
absurd, but involving a point.  (Now often loosely or erroneously used
as if merely equals a contradiction in terms, an incongruous
conjunction).

It goes on to quote Germain Greer, from the Female Eunuch, "It would be
oxymoronic to claim to be gently, reliably or sensibly in love."

And there is a debatable truth.

We might agree, though, that William Klein's work, especially his book
on Japan as, perhaps, a "riotous symphony" or Sam Abel's work as
"booming quietude." 

The oxymoron is related to the metaphor, that most wonderful of all
literary devices. 

And, this being the internet, there you have my quiet scream.

donal
- -- 
__________
Donal Philby
San Diego
www.donalphilby.com