I was looking at an edition of Raymond Chandler's notebooks during lunch.
It had some great stuff in it, including lists of similes that he'd go back and poach from. Some ones I remembered:
"A mouth like wilted lettuce"
"Lower than a badger's balls"
"A thready smile"
"He was a great long gallows of a man with a ravaged face and a haggard eye."
(Beautifu rhythm in that line too, hitting on the G's.)
There were also lists of slang for San Quentin, shooting craps ("Ada from Decatur" for eights, "Little Josie" for four.) and pickpockets ("Hanger binging" is stealing things from a woman's purse without taking the purse. Presumably while hanging from a strap in the subway.)
Which inevitably brings us to:
Write a Chandlerian Simile
Here I'll prime the pump...
"She had eyes harder than...."
::taps foot impatiently:: C'mon slackers.
"She had eyes harder than Karl Rove's heart."
"She had eyes harder than Chinese calculus." (a venerable old trope)
"She had eyes harder than an untenured English professor at a small state university." (to steal from myself)
"She had eyes harder than..."
"She had eyes harder than the ancient gum petrifying under the movie house seats."
[Dragging the concept over from Natter...]
She had eyes harder than Prince's guitar neck.
To go for the crudity . . .
She had eyes harder than what was in my pants.
Sigh.
"She had eyes harder than the Hope Diamond, and a history twice as cursed."
She had eyes harder than last year's fruitcake.
Thanks, Connie!
Sometimes, it's painfully obvious that I have a real addiction to mid-century pulp.
She had eyes harder than cheeks, softer than bone. What?
