Writing and Weather

I used to lurk on a writing-themed yahoo group—until the number of personal attacks outnumbered the number of useful comments—but now have no place to post my brilliant insights on writing. So consider this a thinking-out-loud post and feel free to skip ahead.

One thing that used to annoy me about the writing list was how *literal* people were in their critiques of other people's work. (It's a surprisingly easy trap to fall into.) For instance, suppose you read, "His eyes were filled with anger," or "I could see the fear in his eyes." (1) I understand the argument that these are perhaps overused expressions, but I seriously wanted to start knocking heads together when people objected to them because they weren't literally true.

Now I am reading Metaphors We Live By for my term paper, and the authors are able to clarify the source of my annoyance for this example: human beings conceive of eyes as "containers" for emotions. This idea is so intrinsic to us that we can say someone's eyes are "full of" anger/fear/hatred/joy and not think twice about what it means. We use the metaphor "eye=emotion-container" in our everyday speech, not just as a literary device, so when we encounter it in literature, we should not assume it is an affectation.

So take that, critiquers!

(1) Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. The University of Chicago Press, 1980. p. 50
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The weather-caster on CNN International said that Europe was experiencing lower than normal temperatures for this time of year. Well, DUH!

We're currently getting either rain or very wet snow. It doesn't matter, as the effect is the same: melting snow. Hoorah! I would gladly take a whole week of dreary, gray skies and showers if it means the snow will finally be gone. Lovely Husband was hoping for *more* snow, but he's obviously off his rocker. I don't think that's proof enough to have him locked up, though. Hmm...

I will say one nice thing about the snow here—it stays white all winter. In Sweden, it would turn dirty gray, and even at the start of May there were still glaciers of blackish ice on all the street corners where the snow plows had deposited snow over months and months. I guess there's just not a large enough volume of snow here to keep gravelly slush on the streets and sidewalks. The snow that sticks around is invariably on stretches of ground that no one has to (or can) walk across.

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Novel Do-Nots, Cont'd:
3. No one will live for centuries without biological or gravitational effects. My old-timers will look like withered potatoes, not young people in the prime of life. This applies to wizards, sorceresses, elves, etc.