The figures — all the different twists of language that rhetoric describes — are sometimes called the flowers of rhetoric.
And there are many of them in "Parks and Recreation," in fact; virtually every scene in the first two episodes contains good bits, with quotable quotes, twists of language that viewers feel smart for getting, and visual gags.
Describing Green's lyrics, which sound like the stuff of conventional love songs on first listen, Reynolds is overwrought: "On closer inspection, though, they turned out to be pretzels of contradiction, with an aporia (the poststructuralist term for voids in the fabric of meaning) lurking in the center of every twist of language, sweet nothings that could wreck your heart".
Given how many poems are on display here, conscientious readers are themselves likely to become a species of hawk -- wheeling over the pages with a raptor's eye (though armed with a pencil rather than talons), seeking out choice twists of language, startling affinities.
He even croons along to covers of the Jackson 5's I Want You Back and the Isley Brothers Footstepss in the Dark, though his skills are clearly put to better use on Wu favourites such as Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Nutmeg and the psychedelic skronk-rap of the closing 4th Chamber, slipping genius twists of language and rhythm into his flow, and never sounding anything less than completely in control.
He could always find a little analogy or twist of language to make you understand things that in those days were completely alien to people... Nobody knew about inputs and outputs, and binary code.
Sometimes they're full of hidden meaning, of twists of language, or simply a game of trying to appease my questions and get me out of the room.
Others considered Mr. Lewis's philosophy pure nonsense, a twisting of ordinary language.
What is shocking about Indiana (or Arkansas) law is not that religious zealots will trample our constitution in the name of their god; no, the real story is the complete acquiescence of the mainstream press to the Orwellian twisting of our language to suit the conservative agenda.
You can also add a twist of foreign language to the name, for example a horse of French breeding could be Le/La .
