"The beauty of bla bla bla"

I would like to write this blog entry about a quote that embraces the exquisiteness of language: “There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity.” (PDF) You may wonder what is so captivating about this sentence. To be honest I don’t know how to explain it very well. One may say that classical quotations such as: “Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.” (Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), “Why am I to be pitied, you say? Yes! There's nothing to pity me for! I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, not pitied! Crucify me, oh judge, crucify me but pity me?" (Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment) or even “For never was a story of more woe -Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet). Yes, it may be a sin to compare a quote of Vonnegut with these sentences that will never leave our mind. But I can argue that this quote is esthetically fascinating. I shall appeal for “literary tolerance” if you may name it this way. It may be too poetical for a novel of sci-fi, to emphasize details with such delicacy. In this situation, Vonnegut is able to merge a story of time travelling and constant action with the use of graceful words. I do not state that esthetics should eclipse the content or meaning of a text. In fact I think the opposite, the use of these sentences highlight the content of the piece.

“There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity.”(PDF) has another form of beauty. It is minimalist, the greatness of the sentence relies on its simplicity. It is a phrase that appeals to motion, to imagination and irrationality. A “plume of smoke” is movement in a poetical and contemporaneous manner of describing ordinary things. “Infinity” as you know, is more of an irrational concept, one that has been discussed for “fair” amount of time. The combination of the ordinary or basic with abstract or intangible terms is minimalist. The use of this sentence is “to create the maximum effect.”(The free dictionary) To you my friends I leave nothing but, reflection upon the beauty of “a tiny plume of smoke at infinity.”