Word association

Following on a discussion with George MacLennan about the use of language and in particular the use of imagery, metaphor and simile (George referred to Ross MacDonald), I got thinking about this and was reminded of one of Raymond Chandler’s most famous similes, from The High Window, ‘On the wide cool front porches, reaching their cracked shoes into the sun, and staring at nothing, sit the old men with faces like lost battles.’

This led me to a word association game and, sitting on the train, I picked a few passing objects and decided to work around them to create an image.

Some rusty beams led me to create the description ‘rusty looking beard’, which I quite like but is, I suspect, quite common.

And, clouds. 'Cloudy laugh' or 'her laugh was as light as a cloud'; because clearly they create two completely different images. 'His words carried the weight of a cloud.' 'Cloudy speech'?

And whilst these won’t be used by me, they certainly got me thinking and I have decided to pick a few objects each day and create a line or two (like how Woody Allen used to set himself the task of writing ten jokes a day.), just in case I can use one somewhere sometime.

Ant fact: The Formicinae, whose sting has been replaced by a circular pore, are the most advanced. The acid pore is particularly well developed in wood ants and is capable of firing a jet of formic acid at enemies. (Source: Ants by Ray North, page 11)