The term “Sublime” is understood as the highest excellence of artistic expression in literature. Longinus, the author of the treatise On the Sublime, finds five important sources of sublimity: (1) the power to conceive impressive thoughts, (2) the capacity for strong emotion, (3) the proper use of figures of thought and speech, (4) nobility of diction, and (5) dignity of composition.
To explain the ideas of Longinus’ On the Sublime, Emma Duffy-Comparone’s recent short story called Marvel Sands is the most applicable type of literary work that corresponds to the concept of the five sources of Sublimy.
The first source of the sublime has to do with the greatness of the writer’s thought. The use of images in this font is useful because it helps readers understand the writer’s concepts, which may appeal to one or more of the five human senses. Several parts in the Marvel Sands passage could be classified as the writer’s way of showing the reader the intended image of the work, rather than telling them. And some of them are the following: (1) using the first-person perspective when telling the story, readers experience the main character’s foolishness of leaving sand on the floor and not putting the bills in the same way on the tray and ( 2 ) the backdrop of seagulls and silence reveals his mature vision and reflects his still learning world.
The second source of the sublime is genuine emotion. If some emotions, such as anger, require you to believe that the personality of the emotion exists, even though it does not actually exist, the author made it possible for readers to feel the intuitive feeling of the fictional character throughout the story.
The third source of the sublime is the poetic use of language. There is a line in the story in which the author used a particular figure of speech called metonymy: “When I got home, I could see the TV flashing blue through the living room window.”
The fourth source of the sublime is diction which includes the choice and arrangement of words. In the Marvel Sands story, the character said the following lines: “I felt a wave of laughter hit my chest and swallowed it”, “I was standing outside the cabin, watching storm clouds gather in the west like big bruises.” “And when actually looking at them, it’s all too obvious that the use of stylistic trappings (simile and hyperbole) is the only way the author has of expressing her ideas through figurative language.
The ultimate source of sublime is the lofty and dignified arrangement of diction for the grandeur of composition. The descriptive type of storytelling shows the author’s technique of letting readers participate in the experiences of the characters.
This analysis leads to Longinus’s belief that “great writing does not convince; it takes the reader out of himself.”
