The Writing Experiment by Hazel Smith

(Jos van der Sman) #1

Here the door becomes animate. In the next example the animation of the
door is combined with wordplay on call. It exploits different meanings of
the word as in the phrase ‘call and response’, and also as in visit.


Example 2.21
the door calls
but fails to collect her

In Example 2.22 the door becomes a person and one who is sending out
contradictory signals:


Example 2.22
the door
beckons
repels her

Example 2.23 suggests a hand of cards and also extending a hand:


Example 2.23
the door shows
the hand that it hides

In Example 2.24 ‘flaunt’ is substituted for ‘shows’ to make the metaphor
more evocative:


Example 2.24
the door
flaunts
the hand
that it hides

The following example hinges on association. The question arises: what is
a door like? It is like a frontier:


Example 2.25
she stalls at the frontier
new space eludes her

In the next example the idea of the frontier is revisited with antithetical
results. And using the question is more confrontational:


42 The Writing Experiment

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