Monday, August 2, 2010

Phraselet No. 110

The "marks" surged in -- young fellows in straw hats with their coats over their arms, here and there a fat woman with beady eyes. Why does that kind always have beady eyes, Stan wondered. The gaunt woman with the anemic little girl who had been promised she would see everything in the show. The drunk. It was like a kaleidoscope -- the design always changing, the particles always the same.

- William Lindsay Gresham,
Nightmare Alley

2 comments:

Scattercat said...

I love the metaphor, but I don't know if "particles" is quite the right word. "Colors" or "components," maybe?

Loren Eaton said...

I would've liked "colors" better, too. Alas, I think Gresham is beyond any ability to edit now.