[continued from previous message]   
      
   So a reader's first thought would be that the line makes no sense.   
      
   > However, when someone is suffering from clinical depression, they often   
   > do not bother taking out their trash.  As previously noted, my Great   
   > Aunt who suffered from depression stacked all of her read newspapers and   
   > magazines on her front porch. The stacks reached up to the ceiling, and   
   > covered the entire porch, barely allowing passage to her door.   
      
   Are you saying that a perceptive reader would conclude that NastyGoon's   
   speaker is suffering from "clinical depression"? Are you saying that's   
   what you concluded on the basis of one line? I did not.   
      
   >> If   
   >> NastyGoon wanted to compare oppressive memories stacking up to something   
   >> else, they should have compared that to something that is read and not   
   >> thrown away; anything from magazines, to books, to downloaded files on a   
   >> hard drive. But comparing them to newspapers doesn't make sense.   
      
   "Old clothes would be another good vehicle; those stack up in closets,   
   whether they've been worn or not. That makes four better choices than   
   NastyGoon's.   
      
   > Again, it not only makes perfect sense, but it perfectly mirrors the   
   > practices of my Great Aunt.   
      
   Are you saying that, because you had a Great Aunt who suffered from   
   clinical depression and didn't throw away newspapers she'd read, you   
   were able to grasp from one line that NastyGoon's speaker suffered from   
   the exact same clinical depression?   
      
   My only response has to be that most readers don't have a Great Aunt   
   like that; so they'd simply see it as a bad simile: trying to show how   
   "yesterdays" stack up by comparing it to something that doesn't normall   
   "stack up".   
      
   >>> Both similies are good, by NancyGene's is more original: the idea of   
   >>> wasted time piling up on one is a common theme of poetry, whereas being   
   >>> weighed down by the past is not.   
   >>   
   >> First, I didn't say Creeley was using "The days" to stand for wasted   
   >> time. Saying "Wasted time piles up like unread newspapers" wouldn't make   
   >> sense because the tenor (wasted time) does not pile up.   
   >   
   > There is no point in your discussing what Creeley might have been   
   > saying, because no one (Will, NancyGene, and I) can find a copy of his   
   > supposed poem.   
      
   We're only discussing one line of each poem. I got his symbolism merely   
   by a reading of one line, and saw it as a good simile. I also got   
   NastyGoon's simile by the same reading of one line, and on reflection   
   see it as a bad simile.   
      
   >> Second, if one wanted to say that their memories were oppressive (as you   
   >> say NG is trying to express with their simile) doesn't make sense   
   >> either, because (in addition to not normally stacking up in piles),   
   >> "read newspapers" aren't oppressive either.   
      
   > I sure as hell felt oppressive feelings (claustrophobia, suffocation)   
   > when entering her house through the yellowing stacks.  Old newspapers   
   > have a distinctive odor as well, which lends to the feelings of   
   > suffocation.   
      
   Your Great Aunt's house? Well, assuming that you didn't just make her up   
   to defend your "colleague's" simile, I'll point out that readers who   
   didn't have a Great Aunt like yours would have no idea why newspapers   
   were oppressive. They'd see it as a bad simile which ruins the line,   
   just as I do.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)