These hyperkinetic literary eyebrows were starting to raise my own metaphorical eyebrows up to my hairline. As the Writers Helping Writers website points out, the lone “raised” eyebrow is the number one cliché all writers should avoid. For instance, the Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton features 22 eyebrow calisthenics, 17 of which are a single “raised” eyebrow. Maybe I’m being a little unfair because eyebrows are on the move even in decorated novels I enjoyed. Why can’t these writers find something else to harp on? How about, just for a little variety, some grinding teeth? Or maybe some eyes that widen in astonishment or narrow skeptically-without any eyebrow movement? And it was enough to make me want to throw the book at the wall, which would have been unwise because I read on an iPad. That’s an average of one eyebrow movement every 18.75 pages, a slight improvement over The Black Witch but still enough to make me wonder if these characters aren’t suffering from some kind of Tourette’s syndrome of the eyebrow.
#WRISE EYEBROWS PLUS#
This 544-pager contained 18 “raised” eyebrows, plus six “lifted” eyebrows, plus five “arched” eyebrows. Chakraborty, a novel that also came highly recommended. I typed in the word “eyebrow” and counted the use of eyebrows 40 times in that 608-page book, which averages out to one eyebrow movement every 15.2 pages. It got stellar reviews, and yet eyebrows get a workout in the very first chapter, including: “My eyebrows flew up at this.” “Rafe raises his eyebrows.” “Tristan cocks an eyebrow in surprise.” “Rafe turns to me, raises his eyebrows and grins.” Regardless of the actual universal crap ratio, I’m reading too many crappy books with too many moving eyebrows.įor instance, the last book I tried to read was The Black Witch by Laurie Forest. As the American science fiction writer and critic Theodore Sturgeon pointed out, “Ninety percent of everything is crap.” The statement is so indisputable that it has come to be known as Sturgeon’s Law.
But this might be short-sightedness on my part. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find quality writing in these genres. I like to read fantasy and science fiction novels. Slightly more creative writers make the eyebrows “knit” or “furrow” or “hike” or “tighten” or “pinch” or “wiggle”-or any other verb that might describe a mobile eyebrow (or two). Most commonly they “rise.” Sometimes a single eyebrow rises all by itself, but often both eyebrows rise in unison. In novels, eyebrows do all kinds of things. They have become writers’ go-to lazy shorthand for pretty much any emotion. Why is it okay for men to grow beard and have a mustache while not a “pleasant sight” for women to have facial hair, which is LITERALLY a natural thing.I have developed a severe allergy to hyperactive eyebrows in fiction. You can’t wear overly sexy clothing.” The comment said. Mentioning their “unpopular opinion” another user wrote saying that some decorum needs to be maintained for all employees at a workplace, “It’s an office, not an Instagram reel or a ramp. A user by the handle SparkandFlash wrote, “meanwhile in an alternate dimension:- all facial hair on men should be shaved, to hide any raised eyebrows when women come to do their job wearing a dress they like.” (He’s not wrong, though)
#WRISE EYEBROWS CODE#
Another Reddit user wrote that in earlier days, there used to be just two distinctions relating to the dress code at workplaces – Business formals and Business casuals which were quite self-explanatory instead of having such detailed instructions on what’s allowed and what’s not.
0 kommentar(er)
