To define the thing in terms of its opposite

[Johnyxxx]

Hello,

Can anybody explain to me what to define the thing in terms of its opposite means exactly?


To this day I cannot be sure what the thing was that I saw happen there. It began as a point of blackness which I could see with great distinctness because it was between me and the far wall. “Point of blackness” is not a good description, and yet I hardly know what else to call it. There against the grayish-yellow of the room’s faded wallpaper was a thing, suspended in the air as it seemed to me at first. It was in no way human. It hung there, pulsing faintly and unevenly, but always growing with each expansion slightly more than it shrank with the contractions. When I first noticed it, the thing was the size of a large pea. I have called it black and yet it was actually a colorlessness so intense (to define the thing in terms of its opposite), that it seemed to absorb the very glance with which I looked at it.

William Sloane, Edge of Running Water, 1939.


Thank you.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's saying that "dry" means "not wet." "Private" is anything that is not public.

 

[jutfrank]

He's describing it as if it had an intense colour, where in fact it was the complete opposite, i.e., it had an intense colourlessness.

He's suggesting that although that doesn't really make sense, that is the best way he can describe it.