[paranormal]

Is there a word to describe this sort of writing style?

> There was no Microsoft money, no Starbucksian gentrification, no post-grunge feelings of cultural inevitability—only the low-tide stench of marine oil and clams and the calcified class system of a small Western city built on lumber, Alaskan gold, and B-17s.

Every single paragraph of this opinion piece is built on a slightly more general version of this particular device: using particular weighty symbols or instances of a concept in action to refer to the concept (kind of like a metonym). The author's point here is that "Back before Seattle became what it is today, it was a small, boring industrial town." But the way he said it certainly has more punch and says more than my version, right?

I just get the feeling that the piece is so awash in this technique that it comes off as overwrought and preachy.

In any case, I'd like to be able to put a name to this style; it'd certainly help me in my own writing (having words for things helps me understand them: their benefits, their dangers).