Proposition: Kissing is an under-used resource in 20th/21st century fiction.Does this matter? Given the space devoted to lamentable and literary accounts of bonking I think it does.
Consider this. A 25-year-old man invites a 36-year-old woman to dinner at a restaurant. Six months before, the woman's husband abruptly left her and the trauma endures. She accepts the dinner invitation reluctantly and now wishes she hadn't. About to sit at the table she drops her handbag out of which roll typical handbag contents plus prescription drugs which might be tranquillisers. A minute later, reaching to accept the menu, she almost knocks over a glass of water. Her eyes widen in mild terror. The man, whose expression seems to mirror hers, stands up, leans forward and gently kisses her forehead. Comfortingly.
It's that adverb I'm concerned with.
The raw material of novels includes adapted personal experience, a tiny bit of pure invention plus stuff we've simply observed. Often from other novels. Yes we plagiarise! Are you surprised?
Were I to develop the above scenario I'd have to invent it. Offhand there's no one I could plagiarise it from. Kisses are rarely mentioned. And then only as hasty preludes to the snapping of bra straps and the jamming of trouser zips. As to a "comforting" kiss I'd be entirely on my own.
Why are kisses given short shrift? Probably through lack of reflection. They are spectacular events, rich in sensation, eloquently symbolic, pregnant with portent. Truth to tell I fancy constructing a comforting kiss in words because there are those who would call it a contradiction. I'd like to prove them wrong. But I’d like a few examples which show me what to avoid.
Dorothy Parker: Lips that taste of tears, they say, are the best for kissing.
"...he kissed her on the forehead. Passionately."
ReplyDelete"As he kissed her he wondered when she had last flossed."
"...-...-...tongue was ...-...-"
MikeM: Ye-e-e-ss. I'd have probably avoided this trio of monstrosities without any outside help. In fact, with such an open goal I'm surprised you didn't run on a bit more.
ReplyDeleteThe flossing reference suggests the couple are in fact North American, but does that fit the rest of the carefully assembled detail? Aren't they pre-eminently an effete pair of Brits, nagged to death with concerns which went out of fashion - even in Massachusetts - round about the Boston Tea Party? People do floss in the UK but greatly prefer to ignore tooth care altogether. We do have a slogan here: Caries adds character. And it has led to a service which benefits transatlantic tourists to London who may arrange to rendezvous a previously unseen acquaintance at some crowded location (Trafalgar Square, say), confident that superior orthodontics will do just as well as a red rose buttonhole.
I'm working on a poem involving raindrops falling in a Japanese garden and a memory of languid kisses ... thank you for this post so that I know what to avoid. I should also note that I had a devil of time finding floss whilst living in Western Japan.
ReplyDelete