The secret behind the extended metaphor, once chosen, is to stay objective
and let it do its work. Push it and pull it the way you want to go and
people think they are being sermonised and turn off. IMHO. Arthur.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Colin dewar" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: newsub/market ( Colin)
> I tried to make the account as objective as possible but human frailty
> always creeps in and can be turned to advantage, I hope.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Colin
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "arthur seeley" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 8:30 AM
> Subject: Re: newsub/market ( Colin)
>
>
> > This is a beautifully drawn extended metaphor. Apart from an evocative
> > picture of a time and place it casts a bright beam wider. Thanks Arthur
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Colin dewar" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 6:49 PM
> > Subject: newsub/market
> >
> >
> > > Market Place, Wuhan.
> > >
> > > I have only come for some new potatoes,
> > > though any excuse will do
> > > to stroll through the market,
> > > with its tapestry of flesh and earthy veg-
> > > stalls selling any food you could imagine,
> > > dog meat for instance or woodland fungi,
> > > all of it unprocessed.
> > > You get your hands dirty
> > > if you want chicken.
> > > Buying it is just the beginning.
> > > Then you must kill it and pluck it and gut it.
> > > Back home when you buy it,
> > > the work is half done.
> > >
> > > I walk slowly,
> > > careful where I place my feet,
> > > watch vendors hot-faced, yelling
> > > as if they must be paid in blood.
> > > They have worked long in all weather,
> > > their skin purple-brown.
> > > I don't want to worry them
> > > when I come to haggle for half an hour.
> > >
> > > I linger by fish
> > > that I don't know by name,
> > > guess at where they lived,
> > > if sediment or surface
> > > from shapes of mouth and fin.
> > > However they lived all
> > > will be eaten.
> > > For now they survive in basins,
> > > less water than fish.
> > >
> > > I bought one once, a toothless type
> > > with a head like a rock,
> > > almost broke my hand knocking it out,
> > > was told
> > > it would have died out of water.
> > > I recognise eels.
> > > Their heads are impaled on nails
> > > and their bodies stripped clean.
> > >
> > > Fifteen frogs flop together
> > > in a net bag, used for oranges at home,
> > > gather dust on sweating skin.
> > > Someone buys a bag and uses his shoe as a club
> > > to beat them to death.
> > > A pig squeals from a corner
> > > that I don't go into.
> > > Then a rat drops when a box is moved,
> > > and dodges among the tomatoes.
> > >
> > > I am distracted by a fight in the vegetables.
> > > Half an hour of bickering over prices
> > > has led to a fracas,
> > > a couple of women with such abuse
> > > I don't have to know their speech.
> > > A ragged leek whips the offending cheek
> > > and then potatoes are thrown in turn,
> > > the ones I had wanted to buy.
> > > I will shop here for another half year,
> > > go home to my own barbarities.
> > >
> > > Wuhan. P.R.C. 91/92
> > > _________________________________________________
> >
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