Because of Good Omens and a friend’s fandom for The Hogfather, I’ve recently been reading some of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Yesterday, I finished reading Moving Pictures. I won’t write a review or commentary, because (much as Sam Gamgee said when asked what he thought of Elves) Sir Terry is a bit above my likes and dislikes. It doesn’t matter what I think. I will, however, single out a line for praise. It describes the exit of the troll Detritus as he “loped off”:

“His trailing knuckles left two furrows in the dust.”

We often use the word “drag” when talking of knuckles. We write of knuckles dragging the ground or people who are “knuckle-draggers.” But “trailing knuckles” sound like knuckles that were made to glide along the ground behind their owner, not intentionally, like the knuckles of the gorilla who uses them for locomotion, nor semi-consciously, like the knuckles of the stunned athlete who has discovered too late that glory is transient, but artlessly, like knuckles that evolved for millions of years into that position and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

I also love “left two furrows in the dust” because of the perspective it uses. The phrase creates a visual in the reader’s mind, not from the action itself, but from the action’s effect on the environment–the footprint, not the foot, as it were.

Overanalysis? Certainly. But that’s who I am. I can’t help it.