[continued from previous message]   
      
   >>>- once they're read, they're thrown away.   
   >>   
   >> Under normal circumstances, yes.   
   >   
   > 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.   
      
   Again, you nailed it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)