Climactic or anticlimactic: Ascending or descending
From English Composition and Rhetoric, by Alexander Bain; English Composition by W. Davidson; Practical Rhetoric,
by Albert Raub:
I. Climax increases.
A. A thought grows in strength to the close of the sentence or the paragraph.
A day, an hour, an instant, may prove fatal.
B. The parts grow in importance.
Beginning with the weakest, the parts of a climax grow in importance. The most forcible stand last and make the strongest impression.
Indolence implants vices; vices lead to crimes; and crimes, to the gallows.
II. Anticlimax diminishes.
A. Thought transitions from important to trivial.
B. It is often used in humor.
We tend to laugh at the unexpected.
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends. (Woody Allen)
#anticlimax #anticlimactic
