(no subject)

[nny]

I find it interesting. Our patterns of speech are obviously formed by our experience and our surroundings - you will quote your mother, your flatmates, your grandparents, your favourite author. What we say and how we say it is very rarely our own; it's a trait far more obvious in geeks, of course, because we're constantly (or at least, I am constantly) quoting things back and forth at each other, and there's an element of squee finding someone who shares at least a part of your cultural database. 'CAKE OR DEATH?' can be shorthand for a certain sense of humour, a number of films that may have been watched, even an implied level of acceptance of alternative lifestyles. It's nice to have potential conversations mapped out in advance.

Personally, though? There is nothing more nerdily bouncifying than coming up with a sentence that may well never have been said before. Metaphors and similes make me happy because there's an endless playground to experiment with.

Which is why I love Christopher Moore, and lines like " - and the soft turbulence of the bats that entered their cave through the monastery echoed off the stone walls like the death panting of epilectic shadows."


I'd really love more examples of weird and unique metaphors/similes/analogies, if anyone comes across any today.

Comments

[gramarye1971]

One of my all-time favourite metaphors comes from Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Prayer', which describes the Shipping Forecast as 'the radio's prayer'. I would never have come up with that on my own, but it's a perfect description of the few minutes of quiet contemplation I used to enjoy when I listened to the Shipping Forecast before bed. A familiar, comforting pattern, much like the rhythm of saying a rosary.

Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

This is possibly not quite what you meant, but.

I wrote a story, last week, and shamelessly adapted Milliways for use in an English composition, just a short descriptive passage.

My favorite line in the entire thing was when I described Lucifer's voice as being as "smooth as the oil ruining a silk shirt".