Today I think I’ll use… Hamartia

It’s fun to use obscure literary and rhetorical terms that nobody knows for techniques that we use all the time.

Hamartia is a fancy word for the ever-popular “tragic flaw” in a character, the built-in time bomb that’s going to bring the sumbitch down. In classic literature, it usually causes the character to make decisions or perform specific acts that bring about the exact opposite of what he wants.

Sounds like fun.

Hamartia. Go ahead and use it!

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