Thumbing Through a Book
I wrote, “I was thumbing through a book,”
and then paused to consider the phrase.
I’d just used a cliché, a tired old phrase
used by billions of lazy talkers and writers,
a descriptive phrase that was, once, when
Adam and Eve were teenagers, an original
use of words. It becomes a cliché because it
is so apt, pertinent, effect, and understood.
Well, I suppose it was not a cliché
or even accurate back in the days when all books
were on scrolls, but as soon as the codex
was invented, especially the pocket book
codex, this “thumbing through a book” phrase,
was very accurately and uniquely descriptive.
After wide spread used the freshness has gone
rancid and it becomes a lazy thing to do,
a thing which one ought not to do, at least
not something that would be recommended
by some hair in a bun, pencils in the beehive
grammar loving, wantabee poet/English
teacher. I thought about it for a while,
considered seriously changing the phrase,
hoping that I could come up with something
so descriptive, so clear, so cleaver that it
would be come the next tired ole cliché for
future generations of lazy communicators.
So, I opted to leave it in. The cliché was
also, at least for me, at least in my mind,
a metaphor. I know you’re thinking that
it is a worn out descriptive phrase that
attempts to draw a picture of a reader
turning pages with his thumb, quickly,
allowing the pages to fan past his eyes
slowly enough to see, but fast enough
to prevent actual reading. It is a metaphor
for me because I am making a comparison,
seeing a picture, conjuring an image of a
hitchhiker, thumb out, hoping for a ride.
That’s what we do when we thumb through
a book, don’t we? We are trolling for
something that will pick us up and
carry us off in some delightful and
unexpected place. Words are after all
a vehicle for thought. If you have no words
how to hell would you think stuff?
Article submitted Monday, July 06, 2009 & read 3622 times.
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