Gourmet English: “Oh yes it is!” “Oh no it isn't!”

Gourmet English: “Oh yes it is!” “Oh no it isn't!”:

“Oh yes it is!” “Oh no it isn't!”

Contrasts. Painters do chiaroscuro - placing very dark colours against very bright ones. Or contrasting colours – yellow against purple, white against black, green against red. Sharp lines against curvy ones. It makes the painting more interesting and emphasises the difference.

Contrasts in writing work too.

Everyone knows how Agatha Christie always chose the most unlikely suspect as the murderer. And the Mousetrap is still selling – or giving – tickets away even in 2019. So I am afraid that I  cannot tell you who did it. 
She is careful to choose a group of contrasting people, too. Colonel Mustard sits with A lovely blonde bimbo. Mr Grumpy sits next to Lady Happiness. And so on. Even Hercule Poirot is a contrast – a Belgian with a silly moustache.
You can see that I am not a fan!

The Chinese knew about contrasts.

In the magnificent I Ching, male and female are contrasted in the form of broken and uninterrupted lines. Water, thunder, Beginning and end, Establishing the New; Falling away. Mystery leads to answer. The present foretells the future.
Initial six - Do not persist in the case - A little dispute - Ends in good fortune.
This all ties in with yesterday's post. In case you have forgotten, it goes something like this:

Pick a subject which everyone knows to be true and then point out the other side.

Spiked Online does this regularly and it makes very edgy copy.

Omar Khayyam – translated into exquisite verse by Edward Fitzgerald:

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

He goes on through the work to advise the drinking of wine as the solution to all problems! This from a devout Muslim.

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before

The Tavern shouted - 'Open then the Door!

You know how little while we have to stay,

And, once departed, may return no more.'

And he never explains why he does this.

And when like her, oh Saki, you shall pass

Among the Guests star-scatter'd on the Grass,

And in your joyous errand reach the spot

Where I made one - turn down an empty Glass!

You, the puzzled reader, have to understand…

Contrasts: Sometimes they work; sometimes they don't.