Thoughts inspired by my reading
Apparently everyone grabs everything these days. No longer do people simply pick up anything. If my reading is an indication of present-day trends, everyone’s so motivated by instant acquisition that they feel the need to seize things – snatch them, capture them, and clutch them in tight grasp.
In books I’ve read recently characters have grabbed, clothes, cell-phones, the arms, sleeves and hands of others, books, keys, bags, flowers, and all manner of other objects and devices.
I wonder if there’s a food shortage when all sorts of food is grabbed also – biscuits, bananas, Chinese take-out, a greasy burger, as well as drinks including coffee, wine, tea, and a round of beer. Even, strangely, a plucked chicken. It makes me wonder, does no one select, choose, or simply pick up a cookie any longer?
Coffee seems to be particularly affected, whether it be in coffeepots, plungers, or cups. Now I am an enthusiastic coffee drinker and the very thought of a long black, or occasionally a cappuccino, is enough to excite my taste buds. However, the thought of grabbing a cup, let alone a whole brimming coffeepot, fills me with worry. Surely it’s an action fraught with consequences.
As well as the hands, shoulders, arms and hair of others, characters grab their own or others' stomachs, crotches and, believe it or not, ass. It seems the Me-Too movement hasn’t percolated to the fiction pages yet.
Given appropriate circumstances, I can see that someone may well want to grab their purse, a cigarette, a machine-gun, shotgun/rifle/spear, a wrench, or a condom – all of which I’ve also encountered in recent reading. And I suppose I can accept that, particularly perhaps when associated with some of the former, a person might grab a moment, or a breath.
I have a little more difficulty when I read that characters grab cabs and taxis, one grabs an elephant, and another hobos. Go figure.
And I thought my reading preferences were somewhat on the literary side of the spectrum. It’s just as well I don’t grab books classified as popular or sensational.
In books I’ve read recently characters have grabbed, clothes, cell-phones, the arms, sleeves and hands of others, books, keys, bags, flowers, and all manner of other objects and devices.
I wonder if there’s a food shortage when all sorts of food is grabbed also – biscuits, bananas, Chinese take-out, a greasy burger, as well as drinks including coffee, wine, tea, and a round of beer. Even, strangely, a plucked chicken. It makes me wonder, does no one select, choose, or simply pick up a cookie any longer?
Coffee seems to be particularly affected, whether it be in coffeepots, plungers, or cups. Now I am an enthusiastic coffee drinker and the very thought of a long black, or occasionally a cappuccino, is enough to excite my taste buds. However, the thought of grabbing a cup, let alone a whole brimming coffeepot, fills me with worry. Surely it’s an action fraught with consequences.
As well as the hands, shoulders, arms and hair of others, characters grab their own or others' stomachs, crotches and, believe it or not, ass. It seems the Me-Too movement hasn’t percolated to the fiction pages yet.
Given appropriate circumstances, I can see that someone may well want to grab their purse, a cigarette, a machine-gun, shotgun/rifle/spear, a wrench, or a condom – all of which I’ve also encountered in recent reading. And I suppose I can accept that, particularly perhaps when associated with some of the former, a person might grab a moment, or a breath.
I have a little more difficulty when I read that characters grab cabs and taxis, one grabs an elephant, and another hobos. Go figure.
And I thought my reading preferences were somewhat on the literary side of the spectrum. It’s just as well I don’t grab books classified as popular or sensational.
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