The Sound of Darkness

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy, page 15

Background

The Road is the story of a father and son’s journey through apocalyptic America. They’re traveling through the hollowed out shell of the eastern United States, trying to reach southern warmth by winter. They travel in stealth, wary at every turn of the roving bands of cannibals threatening their existence. 

What makes it wonderful?

If you’ve ever been a child, awake in your bed, alone in the middle of the night, you know the feeling of a blackness to hurt your ears with listening. Listening for monsters or bumps in the night. Any sound to give your eyes a clue of what they might be missing. 

I know this feeling well from camping. Waking in a tent so dark I can’t find my hand in front of my face, then straining my ears listening for any hint of a sound. 

Is it a bear? A chipmunk? The wind? A serial killer?

Your mind wanders in weird ways when the darkness blinds you. Your ears are the only tools to survey your surroundings. And sometimes they deceive you. 

McCarthy doesn’t tell us exactly how dark the night is. He gives us a familiar feeling and lets us tell ourselves.

Let's get technical

Imagery is McCarthy’s tool of choice in this example. Imagery is a vivid description that appeals to your senses to evoke a picture or a feeling. 

McCarthy was setting the scene of a pitch black, lonely, scary night. But he doesn’t tell you what it was like. He gives you a feeling and lets you paint the picture on your own. Because the words a pitch black, lonely, scary night are boring. They don’t conjure images in your mind. They tell you exactly what it was, and they leave your imagination lounging on the couch.

But a blackness to hurt your ears with listening? What does that mean? It instantly turns the crank on your imagination and sends it sputtering into overdrive. 

It shoots you back in time to your monster filled bedroom from childhood or your tent in the woods surrounded by hungry wolves. 

McCarthy isn’t painting the picture for you. He’s giving you clues and letting you paint it yourself. And what a vivid scene it creates!

It’s easy to tell your reader what you saw. It’s harder to help them see by making them feel a familiar emotion. But good things don’t come easily. Do the extra work to delight your reader. It might mean a fan for life.

Happy writing, 

Joe

P.S. Looking for more examples of imagery? This is one of my favorites.