Page 20 - Sixty Nine Tools

Chiasmus
Cacophony is used as a tool describing discordant situations with
discordant words. In chiasmus two clauses are reversed and therefore balanced
against each other.
Examples:
Examples:
“We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work your
wicked will . . .” “Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat
(Winston Churchill) and drink that they may live”.
(Socrates)
“And being no stranger to the art of was, I have him a description of
cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, “I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction’s job was to
swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”.
countermines, bombardments, sea-fights . . .” (David Foster Wallace)
(Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”)
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”.
“However, as they had left their cars blocking the road, a harsh, (Wiliam Shakespeare in “Macbeth”)
discordant din from those in the rear had been audible for some
time, and added to the already violent confusion of the scene”.
(“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
Cliché

Catachresis We associate clichés with sayings or phrases which are overused.
The word comes from the French language and was originally used
In catachresis words or phrases are used in a way which is very for a printing plate in which the cast letters were used over and over.
different from their traditional usage. The word comes from the
Greek word for “abuse”, and the term originally meant abuse or The use of clichés in speeches or presentation may have some use,
misuse of grammar. but generally would be best avoided.

Examples: Examples:

After noticing the high price, his wallet could not be found. As old as the hills.
Time will tell.
To take arms against a sea of troubles. At the speed of light.
Scared out of my wits.
“’Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon’s purse”. Frightened to death.
(Shakespeare – “Timon of Athens”) Every cloud has a silver lining.
What goes around comes around.
“Blind mouths!” Fall head over heels.
(Milton – “Lycidas”) Don’t get your knickers in a knot.
Do you think I’m made of money.