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Motifs
Definition of Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—particularly to reveal a deeper or hidden truth... read full definition
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point—particularly to reveal... read full definition
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to... read full definition
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Mechanical Hound:
The name of the Mechanical Hound is an oxymoron: a mechanical thing is a man-made machine, whereas a hound is a biological creature. The Mechanical Hound occupies a liminal space between the animal and the mechanical, and fittingly, it is often described with paradoxes. For instance, this passage from Part 1 describes it as follows:
The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse.
It is an obvious paradox to say something "slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live." This contradictory language makes the Mechanical Hound sound uncanny and strange; it behaves like an animal in some ways but is not in fact one, and therefore could be said to both live and not live.
Another paradoxical description appears in Part 3, when a new Mechanical Hound is set loose to track down Guy:
Out of a helicopter glided something that was not machine, not animal, not dead, not alive, glowing with a pale-green luminosity.
This list only tells us what the Mechanical Hound isn't: dead, alive, machine, animal. These repudiations make the killer machine scarier than it already is: the less information is given about the Hound, the more vaguely it's described, the more the reader understands Guy's fear of it. You can't defeat or control something you don't understand. This list also shows (ironically, considering it affirms the Hound is neither animal nor machine) the Hound's dual mechanical and animal states of being. We might understand this quote as describing a machine that only seems like an organic creature, but does not have an organic creature's sensibilities or interior life. Nor does the machine have a machine's weaknesses; it can run and hunt like a dog.
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Mechanical Hound:
The name of the Mechanical Hound is an oxymoron: a mechanical thing is a man-made machine, whereas a hound is a biological creature. The Mechanical Hound occupies a liminal space between the animal and the mechanical, and fittingly, it is often described with paradoxes. For instance, this passage from Part 1 describes it as follows:
The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse.
It is an obvious paradox to say something "slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live." This contradictory language makes the Mechanical Hound sound uncanny and strange; it behaves like an animal in some ways but is not in fact one, and therefore could be said to both live and not live.
Another paradoxical description appears in Part 3, when a new Mechanical Hound is set loose to track down Guy:
Out of a helicopter glided something that was not machine, not animal, not dead, not alive, glowing with a pale-green luminosity.
This list only tells us what the Mechanical Hound isn't: dead, alive, machine, animal. These repudiations make the killer machine scarier than it already is: the less information is given about the Hound, the more vaguely it's described, the more the reader understands Guy's fear of it. You can't defeat or control something you don't understand. This list also shows (ironically, considering it affirms the Hound is neither animal nor machine) the Hound's dual mechanical and animal states of being. We might understand this quote as describing a machine that only seems like an organic creature, but does not have an organic creature's sensibilities or interior life. Nor does the machine have a machine's weaknesses; it can run and hunt like a dog.
