According to Google books, the word or noun mountain shows 29 times. In plural it shows 43.Besides the fact that this term is the name for Tim Hamner’s observatory, I am speculating that it is not by accident that the authors refer to as the “mountain observatory.” As we know that the repetition of words… Continue reading mountain Observatory
Tag: Google Books
just breathe
Well, I wrote this up yesterday before I went home, but apparently closed down my computer before it finished posting. My bad. Breathing: it’s simple, and it happens more or less automatically. With the Hammer strike, I would have thought that many of the characters would find good occasion to breathe, whether to calm themselves… Continue reading just breathe
No supply, all demands.
With a whopping 83 appearances within Lucifer’s Hammer, Id say the word, demanded, deserves a little notice. While the verb is used fairly regularly in this novel, that is to say, it preforms the same function as the word, said, (e.g. Tim said, he said, one said), it is interesting to notice the increase in… Continue reading No supply, all demands.
The Four Letter Word
“Fuck” can be pretty much any part of speech and indeed can be used for every word in a sentence, i.e. “Fuck the fucking fuckers.” Lucifer’s Hammer is a lesson in the uses of the English language’s most vulgar word, but its use is not meant for shock and vulgarity. Fuck is a very strong… Continue reading The Four Letter Word
“Star(s)”
“Star” 18 results. “Stars” 35 results. Stars, as in the hot balls of gas (crudely put) seemingly fixated millions and some billions miles away, appear just around 50 times in this novel. Stars, as in celebrities and popular figures in society, appear just handful of times. What’s interesting isn’t so much the shifting meaning/symbol of… Continue reading “Star(s)”
The “Chunk(s)” of Degradation
A chunk, of something, chunky peanut butter, a chunky person; the word chunk can be used in many a’ context. Comfortably, the word “chunky” in Lucifer’s Hammer is usually referenced in terms to the comet, Hamner-Brown, or some damage that has occurred in the storyline due to this comet hitting the earth. Comets are massive… Continue reading The “Chunk(s)” of Degradation
shades of gray
I had a hard time deciding what word to write about in my blog this week. I finally decided to do a search on the terms “black”, which appeared 88 times; “white”, which appeared 85 times; and then, finally, “gray”, which only appeared 24 times. I found this interesting because so much of the book… Continue reading shades of gray
You Betta’ Recognize.
Memory and senses alert you to the familiar. You “recognize” something when you have had previous experience of knowledge with a thing or a situation. In an unfamiliar situation, you know, such as a comet destroying half of the world, recognizing familiar people and situations could be a key to survival. The word “recognize” appears… Continue reading You Betta’ Recognize.
“urgency” in Lucifer’s Hammer
The word I choose in the book was the word “urgent.” Seemed like a pretty good choice, considering it’s a novel about disaster, but the word “urgent” only appears 9 times in the novel. While 9 does not appear to be a signficant number, the meaning of the word changes as it is carried through … Continue reading “urgency” in Lucifer’s Hammer
Where are all the “leaders”?
So, I have to admit, I was expecting to see the word “leader” in Lucifer’s Hammer many more times than 14. For a novel that, at its heart, seems to be talking about human society and bootstrapping ourselves out of disaster it seems as though there should be more instances of it. What’s telling, however,… Continue reading Where are all the “leaders”?
static, a. and n.
Google Books: 14 results. *Atmospherics; radio noise. *Fixed or held in place, on the ground, etc., freq. in contrast to something that can move; stationary, not mobile. *Pertaining to forces in equilibrium, or to bodies at rest: opposed to dynamic. (OED Online) The word “static” is defined in Lucifer’s Hammer as interference during radio communication.… Continue reading static, a. and n.
Meat
The word “meat” appears fifteen times in Lucifer’s Hammer. With only one exception all uses of the word meat are literal. The exception is the word’s first use in the book, on page 35 when Harvey Randall is in the shower and, “he imagined himself as meat being massaged by hydraulic pressure.” This is a… Continue reading Meat
“Red”
Since reading this novel I have noticed a significant amount of words being repeated, but one word that stood out to me is “red”. It is used 49 times throughout the novel to describe many different objects or situations. One of the ways that “red” is used is to convey warning signs, both before and… Continue reading “Red”
“Neither eternal nor safe”
One of the topics repeated prior to Hammerfall that helps represent the novel’s themes of social chaos as well as to foreshadow events to come is that of Charles Manson. Although Manson is mentioned only twice within the novel, the invocation of his name in this context seems hardly a coincidence. The first time the… Continue reading “Neither eternal nor safe”
“Laugh” in Lucifer’s Hammer
“Laugh” is a word that is used in everyday life to- more often than not- describe the audible, outward reaction to happiness or being tickled physically or by jokes. Something like that. However, interestingly but not unexpectedly, “laugh” begins to appear much more frequently in Lucifer’s Hammer after the comet hits. 26 results, 22 of… Continue reading “Laugh” in Lucifer’s Hammer