So. I hate hyperbole. Sure, it's beautiful and adeptly describes situations that are comedic, poetic, or frustratic (Yeah, I made up a word for the sake of parallel structure, so sue me. -- please don't). But-- it's terribly inaccurate and tears apart the severity of situations, turning life into an over-dramatized performance. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" (huzzah for Shakespeare).
I do love hyperbole. Nothing makes me happier than throwing out the most absurd analogy to depict a preposterous position, a tangle of diction to distill discomfort and disconcertion (More word-crafting. Deal with it). I'll tell you with the utmost certainty that the contact juggling I witnessed today was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I mean-- it was freaking awesome. (But was it really the coolest thing I've ever seen? Well, I've never seen a guy literally lit on fire (before today), but I doubt it really was the coolest thing I've ever seen).
But still, hyperbole kills the very impact of words. Because we use such extreme terms to describe mundane--or at least much less intense--events/situations, we force our language and diction to shape more emphatic ways to express ideas that are slightly more awesome/depressing/scary/strange than the ones for which we already used hyperbole (Or we re-use hyperbolic statements and equate situations with unequal quantities of severity). By using extra-emphatic diction to describe less-emphatic scenarios, we degrade the very meanings and connotations of the words we use.
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