Ruskin’s Style of Thought
Ruskin’s Style of Thought
Animating Redescription in the Late Writings
John Ruskin complained of being ‘called a “word painter” instead of a thinker.’ This chapter challenges the basis of that opposition, in claiming that Ruskin’s way of putting things is itself a valuable kind of thought. A resonant case is his reference in Proserpina (1875-86) to ‘the melancholy humour of a root in loving darkness’, where the vitalist idea of ‘vegetable love’ intrudes on botanical convention in a way that isn’t simply ‘purple’. These later tendencies draw on the purportedly systemic methods of the early works, where definition plays a key role in reopening apparently closed views. When Ruskin wants to tell us what a wall is, he indicates that it has ‘purposes in its existence, like an organized creature’, and that its foundation is ‘what the paw is to an animal’ (The Stones of Venice). From first principles of definition, he conjures something not just unexpected, but manifestly rethought.
Keywords: John Ruskin, vitalism, description, word painting, Proserpina, Love’s Meinie, late writings, style, definition, thinking
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