"Stark focus"

Hello,

A new question about Weber's "Heirs of Empire".

Colin has to decide whether to have Cohanna's dogs (genetically enhanced
dogs) killed or not. He asks Galahad (one of the animals) what his
definition of evil would be. Galahad's answer produces a strong reaction in
Colin's mind (Baen Books, paperback edition, 1999, page 42, 4th paragraph):

"Colin winced, for Galahad had cut to the heart of his own definition of
evil. And whether he'd meant to or not, he'd thrown Colin's decision about
his own fate into stark focus."

My question: how would you rephrase the second part of the second sentence
("[...] he'd thrown Colin's decision [...] into stark focus")?

"To bring something into focus" usually means "to bring that something to
attention". But here, it doesn't match... In this context, my guess is it
means something more like "to shed new light on the problem of the dogs'
fate". Or else: "to give Colin new elements to make his decision about the
dogs' fate".

What do you think?

Thanks in advance,

Lucas

In article <43d1144d$1_2@news.bluewin.ch>,
Lucas Moreno <lucas.moreno DeleteThis @bluewin.ch> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>A new question about Weber's "Heirs of Empire".
>
>Colin has to decide whether to have Cohanna's dogs (genetically enhanced
>dogs) killed or not. He asks Galahad (one of the animals) what his
>definition of evil would be. Galahad's answer produces a strong reaction in
>Colin's mind (Baen Books, paperback edition, 1999, page 42, 4th paragraph):
>
>"Colin winced, for Galahad had cut to the heart of his own definition of
>evil. And whether he'd meant to or not, he'd thrown Colin's decision about
>his own fate into stark focus."
>
>My question: how would you rephrase the second part of the second sentence
>("[...] he'd thrown Colin's decision [...] into stark focus")?
>
>"To bring something into focus" usually means "to bring that something to
>attention".

That's not really true. To bring something into focus may mean to
bring something to attention, but it can also mean (and usually does)
that it clarifies it: think of looking through a camera lense that is
out-of-focus (back in the pre-digital days), and then bring the lense
into focus. The things go from being blurry to being clear.

>But here, it doesn't match... In this context, my guess is it
>means something more like "to shed new light on the problem of the dogs'
>fate". Or else: "to give Colin new elements to make his decision about the
>dogs' fate".

In this case, not only does it go from being blurry to being clear,
the adjective "stark" is used to say that the issues involved in the
decision have now become extremely clear and well-differentiated: he
can tell exactly where one issue ends and the other one begins. Not
only is it very much in focus, it is a high-contrast kind of focus.

--
======================================================================
"It's not denial. I'm just very selective about
what I accept as reality."
--- Calvin ("Calvin and Hobbes")
======================================================================

Arturo Magidin
magidin DeleteThis @math.berkeley.edu