The mouse-over: "We need some more grub to munch–I'll go slouch over to the kitchen"
It bothered me specifically because I want it to be "I'll go slouch *towards* the kitchen". That other preposition isn't more unsettling, it's just wrong.
It really doesn't sound "unsettling" to me, Rather, the woman comes across as a non-native speaker who learned English by reading old pulp crime stories. The word-choices would be fine in that context, e.g.
"It was a humid, watery, evening, the kind where I wanted to wring the air like it was someone's neck. My walk to meet a new dame made me all clammy for the wrong reasons. But I was on my best behavior, so all I had to guzzle was some tea she served. The sinuous Cynthia Onim, aka exotic dancer "Sin Snake". She had just gone to "slough off this dress and slither into something more comfortable", when suddenly …"
I'm reading Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. On p. 381 she writes "It is another foggy day, and it has not lifted by afternoon: rain just holding off, but the air as damp as if the afternoon had been rubbed with snails."
Thx. That’s a good quote. And a good example of the “trying too hard” prose style (among other things) that made me quit reading Wolf Hall about eighty-five percent of the way through.
Daniel Barkalow said,
August 31, 2020 @ 4:59 pm
The mouse-over: "We need some more grub to munch–I'll go slouch over to the kitchen"
It bothered me specifically because I want it to be "I'll go slouch *towards* the kitchen". That other preposition isn't more unsettling, it's just wrong.
Ted McClure said,
August 31, 2020 @ 5:31 pm
Were she a "rough beast" I would expect "towards", but "slouch" is such an unusual synonym for "go" that any preposition disappears viz. salience.
Thomas Hutcheson said,
August 31, 2020 @ 6:00 pm
"something more serene?"
'
'
Seth said,
August 31, 2020 @ 9:20 pm
It really doesn't sound "unsettling" to me, Rather, the woman comes across as a non-native speaker who learned English by reading old pulp crime stories. The word-choices would be fine in that context, e.g.
"It was a humid, watery, evening, the kind where I wanted to wring the air like it was someone's neck. My walk to meet a new dame made me all clammy for the wrong reasons. But I was on my best behavior, so all I had to guzzle was some tea she served. The sinuous Cynthia Onim, aka exotic dancer "Sin Snake". She had just gone to "slough off this dress and slither into something more comfortable", when suddenly …"
Yerushalmi said,
September 1, 2020 @ 1:46 am
I agree with Seth. I find the word choices unusual but not unsettling in the least.
John Rohsenow said,
September 1, 2020 @ 3:43 am
cf? W B Yeats, "Slouch[ing] towards Bethlehem …"?
Alexander Browne said,
September 1, 2020 @ 6:52 am
If they want to be unsettling, shouldn't they use "moist"?
David L said,
September 1, 2020 @ 12:22 pm
"slough off this dress and slither into something more comfortable" sounds like quite the come-on to me.
Rosie Redfield said,
September 1, 2020 @ 1:24 pm
I'm reading Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. On p. 381 she writes "It is another foggy day, and it has not lifted by afternoon: rain just holding off, but the air as damp as if the afternoon had been rubbed with snails."
William Berry said,
September 1, 2020 @ 9:52 pm
@Rosie Redfield:
Thx. That’s a good quote. And a good example of the “trying too hard” prose style (among other things) that made me quit reading Wolf Hall about eighty-five percent of the way through.
bks said,
September 2, 2020 @ 9:10 am
More H.P. Lovecraft than pulp fiction.
Andreas Johansson said,
September 3, 2020 @ 12:31 am
Most of Lovecraft's work was originally published the pulps …