WARNING: Adult content
My short story Kaleidoscope begins like this:
Expanse of green. Sheer silk…white…flowing. A pearl necklace. Pearl earrings.
I gave it to Mat, our instructor at the British Council for some feedback. Apart from some pretty useless comments (e.g. it's a horror poem!?), he marked on the phrase "pearl necklace" (adult content - think before you click) and asked me to look it up on Urban Dictionary, if I dared. Of course, I had to check it out once he'd said as much, though I wished I hadn't. "Pearl earrings" carried a similar meaning. Even though I found it pretty disgusting that instead of telling me something useful, that was what Mat was doing with my piece, but it is also strangely fascinating with respect to the people's imagination!
My short story Kaleidoscope begins like this:
Expanse of green. Sheer silk…white…flowing. A pearl necklace. Pearl earrings.
I gave it to Mat, our instructor at the British Council for some feedback. Apart from some pretty useless comments (e.g. it's a horror poem!?), he marked on the phrase "pearl necklace" (adult content - think before you click) and asked me to look it up on Urban Dictionary, if I dared. Of course, I had to check it out once he'd said as much, though I wished I hadn't. "Pearl earrings" carried a similar meaning. Even though I found it pretty disgusting that instead of telling me something useful, that was what Mat was doing with my piece, but it is also strangely fascinating with respect to the people's imagination!
5 comments:
Ha ha. I actually knew what pearl necklace's alternate meaning was. Will that make me into a good writing workshop instructor? :P
This also reminds me of an incident from school. I was doing C++ programming at that time and named one of my classes as GString (for graphics string). Imagine the laugh my friends got out of it when they discovered.
ah, listen to Celebration of The Lizard King (by none other than The Doors). It has a line "and couples, smug with ... eyes in their ..." I think I looked up that in google and then also stumbled upon pearl necklace :). Do listen to that song though, it's poetry.
And while you're at it, for some more adult content, do listen to Gloria - you'd love it (again by Doors). Infact, I think you'd fall in love with Morrison if you listen to his album An American Prayer, which is 23 tracks of pure poetry, Jim-style.
I am frankly sick of these alternate meanings man. So many things now mean something else... that it's making writing a tougher task. What if we write something and... anyway, Morrison was in fact a brilliant writer. I got a few books full of his poetry- and trust me it's suggestive in places!
wikipedia actually has a picture of a pearl necklace :D. Talk about disgusting :P
Vinod
Well, you should check out Chachi's post on his GStrings as well. That's multiple interpretation for you. :)
Rohit
I actually don't mind alternate meanings. It's fun and the pleasure of discovery on every reading is something you can't beat. And well, this is what you do in literature. Without that, the entire field of literature would collapse. What pissed me was a lack of feedback on the story other than this comment, except for calling it a horror poem.
Chachi
Oh well. What do I say. They really do have it. I'm surprised, and grossed out. But then, that's the freedom of it all, no? And I'd rather have it this way than the other way round. No censorship for me.
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