With Bathos

My favorite quote (from a novel) of all time, and I know many people would find it weird, is not your traditional inspirational quote. It's not a quote about love. It's not a quote that will lift your spirits, or make you wonder about the meaning of life…

It’s a quote that is well written.

The moment I read this line, something in me clicked. I couldn't move on to the next sentence, I just kept reading it over and over again.  The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.

The beauty of this line isn't in what it tells you, but rather in what it doesn't. The line, in and of itself is redundant. It does not actually describe anything. And I find that utterly fascinating.

The ships hung in the sky

This part would suffice, but even this doesn't tell you anything new. All space ships are in the sky  (it is  a sci-fi novel).  And if you're in the sky, you're not falling.

In much the same way that bricks don't

Brilliant!  We know from the first part, that the ships aren't falling. And YET they are compared to bricks (which generally do nothing in the sky but fall). 

You know the most magnificent part? This is not how similes work. In a simile, we use words to highlight the similarities between two things.

"Calculus is like a pebble in my shoe"

Here, we are highlighting the fact that Calculus is making me uncomfortable. Hindering my ability to walk long distances or, move forward with my education (all true)

But this simile does nothing of the sort. It does not highlight the similarities between two things. It does not help in explaining the state of the first. It does not even provide any useful imagery, nothing. 

After reading the sentence we are not any wiser as to what the ships are like…  

The exact literary term is Bathos. It is when a seemingly serious and useful sentence ends in a plain and mundane way; creating this beautiful, satirical line.

In my opinion bathos mock the whole institution of literature. They mock the whole belief that sentences should in the very least, mean something.  They are probably one of my favorite literary techniques ever.