>>24700097
Interestingly, I would argue that good prose has unclear or inexact meaning, such that the bare minimum number of signs are used to suggest an idea. One must also not be too economic, so as to prevent an infinity of truthful interpretations. In Book XII of his Confessions, for example, Augustine laments the amount of interpretation that a small sample of words in the Bible can elicit, and I find this the case for sparsely written novels; I find Hemingway intolerably exhausting to read because of his ambiguity. Purple prose occurs when authors lean towards overwhelming exactness, such that the image generated is rigid and unable to co-opt the varied sign-perception sets in each individuals mind.