"I wouldn't see us a flat anymore but great burning balls of fire turning into eachother, piercing, breaking, howling, singing, melting together and tearing apart."
I feel like I've read enough books where two of the characters have sex, but I've never read one where the author uses such descriptive words and metaphors to describe a character's emotions like in Chapter 14. I think this sentence is full of directly related language and content.
The first part, "I wouldn't see us a flat anymore", is so simple but I think it really means a lot to the girl's relationship with Butch. Flat, is such an easy concept, and I think that's where they were in their relationship. The feelings and the want were there and that was the "flat" part, but once they acted on those feelings things became more complex.
I find the part where she references them as "great burning balls of fire" to be so intense. Then the descriptive words after that definitely confirm that feeling. I think that Meridel Le Suer used commas in between the words piercing, breaking, howling, and singing to describe all of the emotions she was feeling simutaneously while together with butch. Adjoing that with the phrase "melting and tearing apart" shows that each of those words represent different emotions the girl feels at different times towards Butch, but when she is with him they all are welded together.
After I had read this line, I thought about it for a little bit. I picture these burning balls of fire that Le Suer references to and I think about stars, since they literally are burning balls of fire. I feel like by saying they crash together it's like saying the stars are alligning, like maybe the girl had realized she's in love with Butch.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
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I think that this quote from The Girl is a very good example of using language to get an idea, or in this case intense emotion, across to the reader. It is very clear in this section of the book that there are very intense emotions occurring for the main character. Le Sueur could have said "I felt very good and very close the person I was with." But this would not encompass the range of emotion that she is trying to express. Sex is probably a very good example of how certain types of language are simply incapable of conveying the real message. Much like photography is the only language that could express the pain of a child's eyes, I think (and I am sure that Le Sueur would agree) that impersonal language does not adequately express the emotions of this passage.
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