Litotes

     A very effective and useful literary term in a writer's tool-box is litotes (pronounced lie-toe-tease). Litotes is an understatement where an affirmative characteristic is expressed by the opposite of the contrary. For example "Steve Perry is not a bad singer" is a litotes, because it affirms Steve Perry as a good singer by stating he is not the opposite (which, incidentally, is very true; he is an excellent singer).
     Litotes is littered everywhere in culture and literature. Usually pop culture comes in the form of songs, stories, and other mediums. However, the example of litotes that I found comes from a form of art: memes. Perhaps a definition would be helpful. Google defines a meme as "an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed on from one individual to another by...imitation". In short, a meme is a set picture that is applicable to countless scenarios, eventually embodying the idea itself. It just so happens that a popular meme exists where litotes is utilized. Below is the meme.

This is litotes because its meaning is equivalent to good, but it is saying it is not the opposite of good. This creates a mediocre feeling, but still positive.
     Litotes is also found in literature. In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, litotes is used as a rhetorical device. When Conrad is tearing down the idea of imperialism, he uses litotes, through Marlow, to create a lukewarm atmosphere about Marlow's countrymen. Marlow states "I had a white companion too, not a bad chap, but rather too fleshy and with the exasperating habit of fainting on the hot hillsides, miles away from the least bit of shade and water" (Conrad 52). Conrad uses litotes here as a rhetorical device in order to show that imperialism is a gray area of morality, because there are humans, who are "not bad" on either side of the issue. Not bad, in this case, implies not entirely good either. Conrad creates this feeling through the literary term of litotes.