New parallels

The development of style in any sphere takes a long time, and requires intense study. Some people take off immediately, yet others need to buckle down for a long wait. With this in mind, wanting to deepen awareness of 'style', I've dusted down a textbook on 'writing style' and decided to acquaint myself with aspects of good (classical rhetoric) style: starting with parallelism below.

What a chance for a mention of a pop princess whose records were inescapable in my infancy, courtesy of having a father with a sideline as a DJ. A lot of his stuff was dross but Blondie singles were everywhere, three or four must have been from their seminal Parallel Lines. As a very young child, I was so enamoured of Ms. Harry that I recollect being told that I went to 'nursery' with a Debbie Harry badge. What my Action Man playing mates thought I can't remember. But I do remember the below video and that woman is easily the sexiest 'pop' star to grace the scene. Betty Boo comes close, but Debbie H wins hands down.



In this attempt of acquainting myself on better written style, I've delved into Corbett and Connors' "Style and Statement” (1998). I bought it four years ago and only looked into it on occasion. Recognising this as a waste, I will look at examples of Figures of Speech for a while: starting with parallelism.

In “schemes of balance”, parallelism relates to a similarity of structure in a pair or a series of:
words, phrases and clauses. The grammar of co-ordination must be followed...nouns must be yoked with nouns, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases….” etc.

A few examples follow.....

Example 1:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from those honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
- Abraham Lincoln.

(Relevant words for all ages, yet worth re-appraising – what would Lincoln think in 2007?)

Example 2:
It is certain that if you were to behold the whole woman, there is that dignity in her aspect, that composure in her motion, that complacency in her manner, that if her form makes you hope, her merit makes you fear – Richard Steele, The Spectator, No. 113

Building on the concept of not violating the grammar(s) of co-ordination, he moves on to look at a scheme called the isocolon

The isocolon is a scheme whereby parallelism is achieved in structure (grammatical form) and symmetry in length. By length, this refers to the same number of words and syllables. A useful tool to use when needed…

The Isocolon in action:
“His purpose was
to impress the ignorant,
to perplex the dubious, and
to confound the scrupulous. (p.46)。

My quick attempt at parallelism:

When you look back and contemplate the glory of Debbie Harry, there was that punky edge to her image, that sultry shine to her vocals and that common touch to her lyrics.

Or:

Because Debbie Harry was sexy, cute and and sang well, she was a record company's ideal performer.

Is this a good example of parallelism? It's too clumsy isn't it? Can you think of any more?