Anyone know a literary expression which describes the opposite of pathetic fallacy? Where instead of Nature sympathizing with and reflecting the poetic voice's emotional state, it is distant or even harsh?

An example of nature's wrath that comes to mind is Poe's The Masque of The Red Death. The Red Death "had come like a thief in the night." Maybe you can find something there!

Alienation? Realism?

http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/issue9/Webster9.htm

Dispassionate is the word that comes to mind.

Thanks for the link, DD. A most interesting article. I didn't see him use a term for it, though. Maybe, as you say, "dispassionate fallacy" or antagonistic fallacy?

"Dispassionate" was the word used in the search engine. Maybe no one has come up with a specific term yet. Maybe they are waiting for another Ruskin to define it. It's use appears to be rather recent (last century).

DD

Ruskin's coining of the term is relatively recent, but as you can see, DD, Garcilaso de la Vega is using the device ca. 1534:

Con mi llorar las piedras enternecen
su natural dureza y la quebrantan;
los árboles parece que se inclinan:
las aves que me escuchan, cuando cantan,
con diferente voz se condolecen,
y mi morir cantando me adivinan.
Las fieras, que reclinan
su cuerpo fatigado,
dejan el sosegado
sueño por escuchar mi llanto triste.

And the Book of Isaiah is full of it.

DD

Juan, I think I'm misunderstanding something here. Your question appears to be seeking a term for when nature is unsympathetic with humans, but the poem you give as an example appears to be an example of nature being quite sympathetic, what with rocks growing soft at his crying and trees leaning in and birds and wild animals listening to him cry. Am I misunderstanding the poem or your question?

Actually, if you take 'pathetic fallacy' to mean giving human emotions to natural phenomena ("the sun smiled down on them"), the term 'pathetic fallacy' would also cover nature being distant or harsh ("The cruel sea.." "Blow, winds and crack your cheeks...").

Sarai, my example was of pathetic fallacy, to show it existed long before Ruskin coined the term.

nnn, not really. Nature demonstrates pathos for the plight of the speaker. I am wondering what it would be called when the opposite was true. What you mention is simply general personification.

quote:

---

Originally posted by doñadiana:
And the Book of Isaiah is full of it.

DD

---

I am mistaken. Isaiah doesn't really have that many examples although there seem to be a few scattered thoughout the Bible.

DD

Gee, DD, I thought you were just giving us a critical appraisal of Isaiah.