Figures of Speech Served Fresh

Quote:  “It’s hard not to think that Superman isn’t the only one here with a savior complex.”  Manola Dargis in a New York Times film review.

Figure of Speech:  apophasis (a-PAH-pha-sis), the not-to-mention figure.

The new Superman movie is getting mixed reviews, which is easy to understand given the character’s strong-man-in-tights schizophrenia.  But Dargis points out that the movie’s makers pad Superman’s job description.  Besides keeping the world safe from Kevin Spacey, the S-Man has the additional, more tiresome chore of saving humankind from its own sins.  In case anyone misses the Super-Passion theme, one scene has our hero suspended in mid-air with arms outstretched like the J-Man Himself.

The Times review sums up the matter in an apophasis (“denial”), a figure of thought that emphasizes an argument by seeming to pass over it.  (See more examples here and here.)

Figaro could say that the Times shows some nerve accusing another medium of pretentiousness. But he won’t.

Snappy Answer:  “So Lois Lane is Mary Magdalene, but who does Judas? Jimmy Olsen?”