Tuesday 15 October 2019

Five Senses And A Meal

The Devil's Game, INTERVAL SIX, Part Three, pp. 176-191.

"Leaf shadows flickered on the patio outside. Small cottony clouds ran before a wind that made rushing noises in the trees. Coffee and bacon perfumed the mild air. Neither man seemed to notice." (p. 176)

But we notice flickering, rushing, perfume and mildness, in fact five senses because we imagine not only smelling but also tasting the coffee and bacon.

"Darkling, the precipices dropped straight down to the wrath among the reefs." (p. 177)

"Darkling" is an unusual term that I associate with HG Wells but have also found before in Anderson. See here. (Scroll down.)

Larry and Julia share a picnic lunch:

feta cheese;
marinated tomato slices;
salami;
cucumber;
roast beef and horseradish;
sweet-buttered pumpernickel;
Greek olives;
pears;
wine.

(I am just finishing a glass of wine. I now drink a little but not enough to interfere with meditation.)

(Me: cheese, yes; olives, no.) 

2 comments:

David Birr said...

Paul:
Tolkien used "darkling" at least once, in the second stanza of the poem Frodo made in Lothlórien to mourn Gandalf's death:

From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and DAVID!

Paul: Well, your namesake St. Paul exhorted Timothy in 1 Timothy 5.23 to drink a little wine to ease some kind of stomach ailment. Probably because it was frequently hard to obtain clean water suitable for drinking. So, you should be all right with drinking just a little wine!

David: A cool use of "darkling" by Tolkien!

Ad astra! Sean