On further consideration, I have changed my view of this. Even simplicity can be a rhetorical device, and for its use by the Dark Side, just look at any political advertisement. The thing to be wary of is language that sounds like an argument without actually being one.
Simple speaking is harder to abuse, as Orwell noted in “Politics and the English Language”, but I would prefer not to make a categorical ban on imagery. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, a true metaphor (such as, I don’t know, “the map is not the territory”) is no less true because it is not literal. The problem lies when speech departs from reality, not in the fashion of speaking which does so.
I’m going to guess that Kennaway was criticizing argument by analogy, not rhetoric.
Actually, I’m wary of any sort of rhetoric. The simple truth should be simply said.
On further consideration, I have changed my view of this. Even simplicity can be a rhetorical device, and for its use by the Dark Side, just look at any political advertisement. The thing to be wary of is language that sounds like an argument without actually being one.
Simple speaking is harder to abuse, as Orwell noted in “Politics and the English Language”, but I would prefer not to make a categorical ban on imagery. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, a true metaphor (such as, I don’t know, “the map is not the territory”) is no less true because it is not literal. The problem lies when speech departs from reality, not in the fashion of speaking which does so.