Pathetic Fallacies, The Milky Way And A Future Christmas

Being without a computer for a few days was an opportunity to catch up with some other reading and rereading. I have become sensitized to literary devices that I had first noticed in Poul Anderson's works. For example, in graphic works by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman:

Meteorological Pathetic Fallacy

"Thunderheads , iron-black in the blue distance. The air is suddenly dry and heavy. The sky holds its breath...

"It's coming this way. And it's a monster."

-Alan Moore, Miracleman: A Dream of Flying (Forestville, California, 1988), CHAPTER 3, p. 2, panel 7, captions 1-2.

This "monster" is an approaching storm.

"Uneasy, Mike Moran can hear it, prowling around the perimeter of their conversation. A tiger, circling, closing in...

"It's coming this way. And its a monster."

-ibid., p. 4, panel 7, caption 2; p. 8, panel 1.

This "monster" is the man with whom the viewpoint character, Moran, is conversing. Moran articulates what he feels:

"'I can tell by your voice, by the way you stand... You're not human, John. I can feel it.'"

-ibid., p. 8, panel 7, caption 1.

Scary. Maybe even more evocative than some of Poul Anderson's storm-dialogue parallels?  And I have appreciated Moore's text more by quoting it here.

A Colourful Description of the Milky Way Seen from Space

"I met with Avril in deep space, her costume bright against the Milky Way's pearly blur..."

-Alan Moore, Miracleman No. 14 (Forestville, Calif., April 1988), p. 4, panel 2, caption 1.

A Future Take on Christmas

"...Christmas, when we remember all the dead gods and lost mythologies, and exchange presents."

-Neil Gaiman, Miracleman No. 20 (Forestville, Calif, March 1991), p. 3, panel 1.

Each of these passages reminded me of Poul Anderson to whom we must soon return.