Comments on: JWAM reader request no. 14: Similes

By: Michelle Madow

Michelle Madow — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:57:26 +0000

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to respond … rush week for sororities just ended, and it’s been very hectic around here!

I don’t know why I want to use similes in my writing. I suppose it’s because I see them a lot in books. Thank you for pointing out that they aren’t necessary in writing! For some reason, I thought my writing was inadequate due to the lack of similes, and it’s encouraging to know from a published author that I was probably just being too hard on myself.

Now I’ll probably be much pickier while reading similes! Black as velvet really doesn’t describe something very well. I do like the tarantula one though … it’s fantastic imagery!

I’m really enjoying your writing month blogs. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to offer advice to aspiring authors! It’s so great when authors take time to interact with their fans

I hope to see you at Book Expo in May!

By: Kathryne

Kathryne — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:02:58 +0000

My dad was all excited to give me his favorite trilogy of sci-fi books a few years ago. I still haven’t told him that I couldn’t get past book one because almost every single sentence used a simile. I spent all 450 pages screaming, in my head, “this is not what your English teacher intended when she gave you this tool!”

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:21:00 +0000

I rarely use similes and when I do, I usually regret it. there was a very well received book out a few years ago, SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, that I couldn’t get through because she was constantly using such bizarre similes. It’s a stylistic thing, and, I’ve learned, it’s not mine.

By: alys

alys — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:20:10 +0000

I assume it’s angel food cake as well – angel food cake is very light-coloured, nearly white, and tall and full of tiny holes where there were air-bubbles in the batter. You need a special cutter, which looks like a sort of giant comb, to cut it, because a knife would just squash it.

Devil’s food cake tastes much better, but would totally not work for the simile…

By: Harriet

Harriet — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:52:12 +0000

I actually think “erotic as a stallion” works really well for the context in which Chandler uses it. Of course there are plenty of other contexts that this wouldn’t be the case.

I had assumed the tarantula simile referred to angel food cake. Which, since I don’t actually know what angel food cake looks like, maybe reduces the effectiveness slightly. OTOH, I’m guessing it’s light coloured – to really contrast with the tarantula – and, in any case, the idea of a big hairy spider on a piece of cake is pretty evocative. Or maybe I’ve been wrong, and it doesn’t refer to cake, but to actual angel food. Either way, it’s still a great image.

I once read a book of short stories inspired by Chandler. I don’t remember any of them – can’t even recall if they had Philip Marlowe in them – but I do know that one of them contained (IMHO) a really good Chandleresque simile: “the air was as hot as tomorrow’s news, and as stale as yesterday’s”.