How to pronounce “straining”(noun) in English

"If you wanted to call the rug 'a well dressed man going up a ladder' the name would in fact fit the facts just about as well as in the case of the Cubist picture of the naked mangoing downstairs. From the standpoint of terminology, each name would have whatever merit inheres in a rather cheap straining after effect; and from thestandpoint of decorative value, of sincerity, and of artistic merit, the Navajo rug is infinitely ahead of the picture." This kind of skepticism still exists. This is a work by Joseph Boyes