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Antitheton

Posted on February 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

There was a time in my life when I was reckless—not careful or caring about anything. I jumped off cliffs. I crawled across deserts. I didn’t plan anything, I just went my merry way through death’s door and out the death’s back door unscathed. It was like magic, but I didn’t believe in magic. I just believed that one day I would die, and I did not care which day it was.

This was a great benefit in the the war. My reckless actions were construed as courage. My demeanor made me a soldier’s soldier. I felt none of it. My valor stemmed from a reckless disregard for my own life and the thrill of risking it.

When I got home, I went to work for the NYC Bomb Squad, finding bombs, blowing up bombs, dismantling bombs. Every mission was an opportunity to knock on death’s door, going through, and coming out the other side unscathed—clean as a whistle, still kicking. I got to know one of my colleagues fairly well. His name was Joe and he had a wife and two kids. He shouldn’t have been in the bomb squad business. His hands would shake when we disarmed a bomb. He was always last on the scene apparently hoping the bomb was safely disposed of. I didn’t care. I really liked him. He had great bomb jokes: “A man put a bomb in his hat. It blew his mind.” That’s pretty damn funny.

One day we were on a call at Grand Central Station. the bomb started buzzing and whirring. I was standing about two feet away. Joe jumped on the bomb and it blew him to pieces. His protective suit did him no good. He was shredded. He could’ve run away, but he chose to save me at the cost of his own life. It was sad seeing the steaming pieces of Joe scattered around on the floor and walls. It would take awhile to clean it up.

At his funeral he was valorized as a hero and his wife got up and told us what a loving family man he was. I was heartbroken. Something snapped in my head. Now I work in the public library shelving books. My risk-taking is a thing of the past—safety first is my motto. When I’m not at the library, I’m watching TV or making potholders in my basement workshop.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

The Daily Trope is available on Amazon in paperback under the title of The Book of Tropes for $9.95. It is also available in Kindle format for $5.99.

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Antitheton

Posted on June 22, 2024 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

The full moon was like a pitted rock hanging in the sky. Its beams of light were soft and bright, casting shadows across the mall parking lot. The street lights’ shadows stretched across the asphalt making it seem like daytime. I had been sitting there for an hour, waiting for Becky, waiting for our bi-monthly romp at the “Gallopin’ Rabbit” motel. We were both married. We were both wicked. I had met Becky at church. She sat close to me, touching me. When we stood to sing the hymn, she squeezed my butt cheek and stuffed a business card in my back pocket. My wife didn’t even notice. She was too busy praising the Lord.

When I got home, I read the card: “Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. Becky: 214–555-6969.” Should I call her? If I do, it will probably end badly. But, I would miss out on the pleasures of the flesh that surely awaited me with Becky. i thought it might ruin my marriage. But I laughed to myself—“My marriage is already ruined. Haha.”

So I called her and we met at the Gallopin’ Rabbit. We went wild. The room’s windows were steamed up and I learned two new positions—the “Merry-Go-Round” and “Mozart’s Banana.” My life was complete. Becky had become my shelter in life’s storms.

We were going to meet tonight in my car to discuss the possibly of divorcing our spouses and getting married.

Suddenly there was a bump on my car’s rear bumper. I thought it was Becky fooling around. It wasn’t. It was a red 1960 Plymouth. I recognized it because it was the first car I ever loved as a kid. A short man with a foot long white beard wearing a New York Yankees uniform got out of the Plymouth. I got out of my car and walked up to him. He punched me in the nose and yelled “You’re wreckin’ your life boy. You’re on the highway to hell. Forget about Becky. Play ball with me and you’ll be Ok. I’m Yogi’s grandfather. Would I lie?”

Just then, Becky pulled up. She and the old man got in his car and drove away, burning rubber. I just stood there. I thought about chasing them down, but, then I thought “Why bother. I don’t want her any more. She’s no good.” Then the Plymouth flew overhead with the Shirelles blasting “Will you still love me tomorrow.” That was like another punch in the nose, but the flying Plymouth erased all my doubts about everything I ever doubted. Nobody would believe me when I told them about it. I gave up and stopped caring.

One day when I was headed out to work, I saw Becky dead on my front lawn. She was wearing a short black dress and red high heels. She looked like she had fallen from the sky. Her neck and back were broken. I knew exactly what had happened, but I wasn’t going to tell anybody. I reported it to the police and went to work. Later that day I was called in for questioning. The police had found a nude photograph of me tucked in Becky’s bra. I was arrested and tried for murder. In the newspaper it was called the “Front Lawn Murder.” I got off on a technicality. I had a nervous breakdown and am currently under care at “Root and Branch Home for Total Lunatics.” One of the orderlies is a short old man with a foot-long white beard. Whenever we cross paths he points at me laughs and I yell “Murderer!”

I was finally allowed to go on a home visit. When I got there in a cab, I saw a red 1960 Plymouth back out of the driveway and run over the spot where Becky had fallen from the sky. The Shirelles were playing on the radio. I got out of the cab, walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. My wife answered the door wearing a scanty nightgown, surely from Frederick’s of Hollywood. She said, “I wasn’t expecting you.” I took her by the hand and walked into the kitchen, turned on the blender and stuck her hand in it. We told the insurance company it was an accident. She was remorseful about the bearded man and told me she would never tell how I was responsible for the loss of her left hand. Then, I heard a horn honking in the driveway. It was the red 1960 Plymouth. I ran upstairs and got my .45 so I could blow the bastard away. By the time I got downstairs, he was gone. There was a note in the driveway: “I hope you’re enjoying my twin brother’s company at Root and Branch. Haha. Lunatic.”

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

The Daily Trope is available on Amazon in paperback under the title of The Book of Tropes for $9.95. It is also available in Kindle format for $5.99.

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Antitheton

Posted on November 17, 2023 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

Good and bad. That’s all there is, except for time. Today you can be good. Tomorrow you can be evil. Yesterday’s character, might not be today’s. You can’t be good and bad at the same time. Most of us flip flop. Good today, bad tomorrow. Even though you might’ve been bad last week, you may remember it and relive it, as if the contents of your memory are real. They’re like a photograph—vivid, striking, representative, but not the thing itself—the image is not the thing itself, but it is what it is in its own right as an image.

I am driving myself crazy. I’m chopping myself into pieces with an either/or cleaver. There is no place to hide from decision, and decisions are either good or bad. But as I forge ahead through life, always all the time enmeshed in deciding, when decisions are made, they are immediately enmeshed in deciding or judging their worth. It goes on forever: my inability to settle on an answer. There are no stop signs in my head—I just keep going.

Forgetting is the only way to settle conscience. But inevitably, we remember and we are stricken with guilt, or some kind of benign pleasure. We get upset. We become the fool we were, no matter how many years have passed.

I stole your cat. I wanted that cat so badly that I couldn’t resist. He was furry and black with white feet. He had beautiful yellow eyes. He was perfect. Now that he’s coming down the home stretch, and you’re on your death bed, I’ll tell you the story: I waited outside your house that night. You were a creature of habit—you let the cat out every night at 8.00pm. I was there waiting with a kitty carrier. I had seen you calling him in by shaking a treat bag. So, that’s what I did, and he came running to me. I popped him into the kitty carrier and walked home. I had some new cat toys waiting for him and he settled right in. I put his food dish and water bowl in the basement. When you and I sat together on the couch and lamented his disappearance, he was down in the basement enjoying a handful of treats. Whenever you came over, I stashed him in the basement. Thank God he was a quiet cat, or my cover would’ve been blown. We’ve lived like this for a little over 14 years. I named him Phantom and never let him out of the house for fear you’d spot him.

You look quite angry. I wish you could talk, or even just open your eyes. Oh well. It was important for me to unburden myself of my guilt. I feel much better now and will probably get the good night’s sleep that’s evaded me as the years have gone by. I know you probably feel bad, but not as bad as me. I was bad, and I guess I’ll never forget it. All you had to do was cope with a short stretch of grief, not a lifetime of guilt and regret. In fact, now I’ve talked my self into feeling pretty bad again. I think, to some extent you’re to blame—your smug silence, the beeping monitor and all the tubes display you disregard for my feelings! You know, I didn’t come here to be ignored. I came here to be forgiven. But, that’s not possible, is it Mr. Mute-Lips?

How’d you like to give one of your pillows a big long goodbye kiss? Was that a “Yes?” I think it was. Here you go!

POSTSCRIPT

He smothered his “friend.” When he got home, Phantom had pooped on the wooden floor adjacent to the front door. He slipped on the poop and slammed the back of his head on the radiator by the door. He died almost instantly. He was found two days later after failing to show up for work. His eyes were scratched out. The EMTs were surprised to see a cat run out the front door when they opened it.

An aged Phantom was spotted at his first owner’s funeral. His sister picked him up and brought him home. Although he takes medicine for his joints, otherwise he’s a happy, napping cat.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

The Daily Trope is available on Amazon in paperback under the title of The Book of Tropes for $9.95. It is also available in Kindle format for $5.99.

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Antitheton

Posted on March 30, 2023 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

I didn’t know where I was going until I met you Eddy. Now I know I’m going to hell. I was good. You were bad. Now, we’re both bad. I feel like a duck out of water. A bird without wings. A dump truck that can’t dump. I don’t know if I can go back to being “Big Nice John”—what my friends used to call me. Now they call me “Big Rotten John” and look the other way when they see me on the street. The “rotten” will never go away, the “nice” will never return. But maybe if I can think of a way to redeem myself, I can push “rotten” away and pull back “nice” across my soul like a blanket of goodness, giving me peace. If only I hadn’t forgotten to feed my little brother’s fish for two weeks when he went to camp. Everybody thinks I did it on purpose, Eddy, because you told me to and I did your bidding like some kind of wind-up robot. You know I didn’t and you won’t say so because you want to look like you’re in control of me. For the 5-millionth time, I forgot to Fred them, and you know it!

Now, I am buying new fish to replace the dead ones. Swimming around in the aquarium they will erase my brother’s traumatic memory of seeing his starved fish floating belly up. The smell was surely memorable too. I cleaned the aquarium and filled it with clean tap water and dumped in the fish. The Blennies were ugly. The Clownfish were striking. The Pipefish were crazy. It was a pretty good collection of fish. I went to my room to wait for my brother to come home.

When he got home he went into his room. I expected a big “wow!” Instead, he screamed “You rotten bastard! You are so cruel. You should be shot!” He ran down stairs. I went into his room and all the fish were dead. I picked the pamphlet up off the floor “Caring for Your Salt Water Fish.” I hadn’t read it. It looked like I had struck another death blow when I filled the aquarium with tap water. I went downstairs to beg my brother’s forgiveness. “Hands up!” he yelled. Somehow he had found Dad’s .45 and was aiming it at me. “It was an accident! Please believe me. I would never murder your fish on purpose. I bought those fish for you. I didn’t read the instructions for setting up the tank. That was stupid. I am stupid. Please forgive me.” My brother believed I had set him up with the dead fish, like the horse’s head in the bed in Godfather. When I heard that, I got on my knees and begged him not to kill me. At that moment, Mom came home from the grocery store. She yelled at my brother: “Drop the gun you idiot!” My brother immediately dropped the gun. My mother picked it up off the floor and aimed it at my brother and yelled: “Go to your room, or I’ll shoot!” Mt brother ran up the stairs. I told my mother what had happened and she told me she was surprised I wasn’t dead on the floor when she got home. She told me I had to do my brother’s laundry and clean his room once a week for 2 months. I started to complain and she aimed the gun at me and told me to shut up. She told me to invite Eddy over for a good old pistol whipping—to jog his memory about my first fish kill. Mom’s maiden name was Gambino. She knew how to handle bullshit.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title of The Book of Tropes.

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Antitheton

Posted on July 30, 2022 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

My credit card is like a license plate on a Brinks Truck headed to the bank with a load of cash. Yours is like a dirty little doormat at the entryway of the Dollar Store by your dreary little apartment. They’re both credit cards, but there are some differences: I pay my bill on time, you don’t. I stay under my limit, you don’t, I don’t take cash advances, but you do—paying 16% interest, and wasting the cash on bulk-bin Gummy Bears, impractical shoes, blenders, and other stupid crap that, for some reason, you want to pay cash for, and, you don’t need.

The big difference here is taking responsibility: I am prudent, you are either stupid or reckless, or both. Let’s go with prudent vs. reckless: I was home drinking decaf black tea and watching the musical “Cats” on Amazon Prime while you were out drinking shots and beer at Ogles, bun-scanning every guy who came through the door, and buying drinks for everybody at the bar. Your best friend Renee told me this. I’m paying her $50 per day to keep an eye on you and report back to me. The reports have been shocking. Having sex in the trunk of a Cadillac? Anyway, let’s compare: my life is a smooth-running machine, yours has a broken crankshaft and is leaking oil all over the place. I handle my money like a fiscal surgeon. You handle yours like a cruel butcher. I pay my bills to the tune of an atomic clock. You pay yours to the tune of Cuckoo clock. The contrasts between us go for miles, but the clincher is happiness. The way I handle my credit enables me to be happy. The way you handle your credit makes you miserable. If you change the way you handle your credit, and be more like me, it’s likely you will be happier.

We’ll start here: give me your credit card. Let it cool off for awhile.

I went home and booted up her account. The password was easy to crack: her blood type and her birthday. What I saw shocked me! A $110,000 bill had been paid two days ago by a wire transfer made by Eddy Papa owner of the Papa Eddy’s Pizza franchise with over 200 locations in New Jersey, and Caroline’s big brother too.

I felt like such a jerk. Caroline knew her brother would cover her and was having one hell of a good time. While I sat at home eating canned chicken noodle soup with crushed saltines, she was running wild without any consequences, up until now. Now, I was the consequence, and I was going to ask her to buy us a sailboat so we could sail away—maybe to a marina in Jersey City or Cape May, and have some pizza. Pepperoni for me please!

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title of The Book of Tropes.

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Antitheton

Posted on December 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Antitheton

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

Him: Opposites attract. I’ve heard that so many times. Did you ever see hot and cold running toward each other like soup and ice? The soup melts the ice. The ice cools off the soup. What kind of attraction is that? They kill each other. What about light and dark? A cheap flashlight will make the dark into light. I don’t see how they’re attracted to each other. If they were attracted, they wouldn’t cancel each other out.

Her: As usual you’ve got it wrong. It isn’t natural order (except for magnets) that the saying pertains to. It’s people and their character attributes, their life choices, their preferences, their manners. “You say tomato, I say tomahto. You say potato, I say potahto.” You have a smell that I find repelling and compelling. I shower every day and smell like a rose, and you like it. You like to bike, I like to jog. I think biking is sexy—your legs and buns in motion. You think jogging is sexy, the way I jiggle and sweat. There are a ton more examples—we’re not soup and ice.

Him: But shouldn’t we have common likes and dislikes too?

Her: Of course! What we like in common is each other. If we just liked what’s the same about us, it would be like being alone, looking in a mirror. Come here honey! Let me smell your neck!

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title of The Book of Tropes.

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Antitheton

Posted on March 27, 2021 | Comments Off on Antitheton

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

Stuffing your face and sucking up a bottle of wine every night isn’t going to make you thinner. In fact, the opposite is the case: you are enlarging. This is the 2nd time this year you’ve outgrown your clothes and had to replace them. Salvation Army loves you. Macy’s loves you. The liquor store loves you.

Pretty soon, you’ll be shopping at the Cow Barn, where everything’s plus-sized and they use styrofoam farm animals for mannequins.

You need to decide which you’re going to be: fat or not fat. There is no two ways about it: it’s one or the other. You can’t be both. That’s what gives you a choice. Let’s go to work on this together.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title of The Book of Tropes.

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Antitheton

Posted on January 30, 2018 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

 

If lying is bad, telling the truth must be good. Seems incontrovertible, right? I wish it was that easy! The classic example: You’re hiding your neighbor from the Nazis. They ask you if you know where she is.  You know where she is, but you lie to save your neighbor’s life. Something in the circumstances trumps lying’s badness in this particular case. You may certainly (?) say that generally speaking telling the truth is the right thing to do & it’s opposite, lying, is consequentially the wrong thing to do: but not always.

So, are there any binary terms with social import that aren’t capable of shedding their ‘differences’ and swapping  consequences in particular circumstances? As in the example above, lying seems morally superior to telling the truth.  Accordingly, although telling the truth and lying are paired and will always be different by definition, in practice, in particular cases their moral valences can and should flip.

Telling the truth to Nazis about the whereabouts of your neighbor may be worse than lying, even the though the Nazis have “every legal right” to arrest your neighbor and deport her off to a concentration camp.

So, what are you going do when a law enforcement officer knocks on your door and pleasantly asks if you know the whereabouts of your undocumented Guatemalan neighbor, who you know is hiding in your garage. Lie? Tell the truth?

To be sure, the severity of the consequences for the ‘hiding’ people in the examples above may be somewhat different as are the motives behind the laws sanctioning their arrests. In both cases though, to the authorities, the people they were hunting were (and are) aliens who were (and are) fair game by law.

Think of all the people who were complicit with the Nazis: “She’s down in my basement.” “She’s hiding in my garage.”

Just remember in a particular case the truth won’t always set you free. It may burden you with doing harm to another human being.

Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Antitheton

Posted on March 24, 2017 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

Good and evil. Darkness and light. No middle ground. A site of choice-making that makes choosing easy. But, if we don’t find an in-between to complicate our choice-making we run the risk of being blinded to what amounts to a chasm between either/or as we fail to bridge it with compromise. We must co-create a measure of shared hope borne on a joint project undertaken in a spirit of moderation well-suited to democracy’s messiness and freedom’s fields of fallibility.

Reject the binary pairs, roll up your sleeves, and rejoice in the working through of differences undertaken in the space between extremes.

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Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Antitheton

Posted on June 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

Stammering liars swarm across the angelic edges of life. In countless companies of tragedy they fold sonnets into into origami razors and slash kindness, love, and gentleness into fragments of dread, disgust, and despair.

Theirs is the darkness of light, the joy of fright, and the sinister beauty of fading life.

Ours is the perfect soul of truth: what cannot be torn and turned, touched or burned. Eternal. Immortal. Invincible. Ironic.

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Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

 

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Antitheton

Posted on September 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

What you hope will inspire fear in your enemies and induce them to capitulate may actually inspire your enemies to hope more fervently for victory.  Theirs will be a quality of hope that you, my friend, should absolutely fear!

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Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Antitheton

Posted on January 4, 2008 | Leave a comment

Antitheton (an-tith’-e-ton): A proof or composition constructed of contraries. Antitheton is closely related to and sometimes confused with the figure of speech that juxtaposes opposing terms, antithesis. However, it is more properly considered a figure of thought (=Topic of Invention: Contraries [a topic of invention in which one considers opposite or incompatible things that are of the same kind (if they are of different kinds, the topic of similarity / difference is more appropriate). Because contraries occur in pairs and exclude one another, they are useful in arguments because one can establish one’s case indirectly, proving one’s own assertion by discrediting the contrary]).

While noteworthy acts of great courage may shorten one’s life to a sweet unregretful end, noteworthy acts of great cowardice may lengthen one’s life to a bitter regretful end.

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Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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