There is an old video game by the folks over at Penny Arcade (a webcomic from a time before that was “a thing”) called On The Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness, and I always loved that title.
The game itself is pretty meh… not bad, by any extent, and they did some really neat world-building (and some very silly world-building as well), but that title… gosh, it’s just wonderfully evocative, isn’t it? And kinda silly at the same time, which is more-or-less what they were going for.
The general term for prose like that is “purple,” although I don’t recall why. I remember looking it up once, but have since forgotten… thankfully this is something I can look up again! One second please…
Ah yes, Horace and the Ars Poetica. Right, right. A silly reason, which is why I promptly forgot it. Anyway.
I tend to use a fair amount of purple in my work, as I’m sure you are aware (having read it both in my books and here, on this lovely blog-type-thing). But I like a bit… sure, too much and it’s distracting (although I would argue that Stephen King built his literary career on piles of prose so purple it’s positively grape-flavoured). But it is a special kind of fun to describe or read about something truly otherworldly, and that often involves these little flights of fancy that aren’t strictly needed.
I am currently reading The Diving Bell and the Butteryfly by Bauby, and it’s littered with purple prose (well… it was originally French, so I don’t know if that makes it violet or whatever). But under the circumstances, the entire book built one letter at a time by somebody with locked-in syndrome, it seems fitting. Reminds me why I love those little flowery patches sometimes strewn throughout a good sci-fi piece.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!