Getting the Excesses via Comparisons

Getting the Excesses via Comparisons

Human civilization has always possessed a remarkable thing, namely the tendency to exaggerate. Some of its representatives often tried to stand out of the crowd by constructing or investing heavily in massive and humongous objects. A common newspaper reader is sometimes unable to visualize the image of such described things as gigantic skyscraper, bridge, or plane only by means of his or her imagination. Bare facts and figures, used in the articles covering the excessive fruits of people’s gigantomania, are often unable to help the reader grasp the idea of enormity of this or that object. For this reason, Andrew Pyper in his article covering the peculiarities of the Explorer of the Seas, the biggest cruise liner in the world, employs comparison as an illustrative device to aid his readers in getting the idea of the huge excess that drifts through the world ocean.
Explorer of the Seas, Royal Caribbean cruise ship, tends to be the biggest vessel of its kind. It is stated that the ship “is 310 m long and houses 3,400 passengers and 1,200 crew” to organize sea voyages through the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean seas, and the eastern coast of the Atlantic Ocean. However, all these impressive figures and data are unable to affect the readers to a great extent. They are presented solely as bare facts within a certain article, thus being able to interest just the scientific sources’ readers.
The approach of Andrew Pyper differs dramatically from the one of Lisa M. Beal and the others. His ironical and witticisms-packed article is much easier for the fuller perception due to the wide usage of comparisons, able to deliver the idea of the excess of the discussed cruise ship. One of the brightest and most illustrative examples of this is the comparison that juxtaposes the high seas and the desert of Nevada, the homeplace of Las-Vegas. Pyper argues that the sea had been massively Vegas-ized over the course of the past few years. Thus the author suggests that the desert is more suitable for the “American tradition of making glittering “Somethings” out of absolute “Nothings”, than the ancient and mysterious seas, keeping the old secrets of sailors’ lore, military triumphs and the stories of colonial takeover. Now they are only used to deliver the sailing hotels of Vegas from one point to another.
The acute stinger of Pyper’s irony does not leave the pompous furnishing and decorum of the Explorer of the Seas without account. In the next passage, he caustically compares the boat to the West Edmonton Mall, saying that the vessel resembles the latter more than a schooner, packed with several hundreds of tons of “recreational razzle and dazzle”. The author also sardonically comments the attempts of the ship’s interior designer to stylize some premises according to different historical epochs. In order to do this, Pyper says that all these vintage English pubs and Parisian bistros of the extra-class cruise ship look almost as convincing as similar establishments somewhere in Kitchener or Saskatoon.
In conclusion, Pyper’s masterful use of comparisons in his article on the Explorer of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship in the world, make the author’s message concerning the ridiculousness of the Gargantua-styled luxurious vessel more expressive. This strategy also helps the reader of the article to grasp the idea of otiosity of the ship’s excesses in better way than the common descriptions of gigantic desks and amount of people it is capable to host.

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