Synaesthesia in description

[msstice]

Harebrain is referring to the literary term in this thread.

I thought the soul of art was fighting over terminology.

 

[THX1138]

I was trying to come up with one on my own, where I remembered this from Bladerunner.
'All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain... '

 

[msstice]

I was trying to come up with one on my own, where I remembered this from Bladerunner.
'All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain... '

That's a simile. But it was a damn good bit of ad libbing. Tears in rain monologue - Wikipedia

 

[THX1138]

Your right! It's a comparison and not synesthesia. Should have spent a little more time verifying it.
Thanks @msstic!

Edit:
So, more like:

• The bright field of wildflowers smelled like purple, magenta, yellow, white and green.
• The stars sounded like piles of diamonds.
• Her voice was as smooth as pudding.
• The scent of smoke burned my skin.

 

[HareBrain]

Her voice was as smooth as pudding.

Or, going further, "Her voice was like chocolate mousse". That not only gets you the smoothness without having to say it, but it conjures up that the voice is rich and deep (coming from the dark brown colour). So you have a sound compared to texture and taste, and colour.

 

[Culhwch]

• The stars sounded like piles of diamonds.

'--bzkt--Jesus Christ, Hank!--bzkt--Put your helmet back on!'

'The stars .... they sound .... like .... diamonds ....'

 

[THX1138]

'The stars .... they sound .... like .... diamonds ....'

Now that has impact!

 

[THX1138]

So, like:
His scream rivaled the howling winds in their swirling dark coils and invisible blows.

Her anger lashed out at me like whips tearing at my flesh.

Edit: Had to rethink it.

 

[msstice]

• The bright field of wildflowers smelled like purple, magenta, yellow, white and green.
• The stars sounded like piles of diamonds.
• Her voice was as smooth as pudding.
• The scent of smoke burned my skin.

Except the third, those do sound like a synesthete's perceptions, but from a literary point of view, I feel their effect is dangerously uncontrollable.

I have read books (and I forget which ones) where such surreal sentences worked, but they worked specifically because they left the reader confused and this confusion was skillfully led.

The three you came up with have a haunting quality precisely because of their surreal nature. I spent more time re-reading them because I was looking for hidden meanings. The problem is, if there are no hidden meanings, it makes me angry as a reader. (Promises not kept, etc.)

 

[msstice]

Her anger lashed out at me like whips tearing at my flesh.

Simile.

 

[HareBrain]

Simile.

Just pointing out that while the example you quoted does not use rhetorical synaesthesia, a lot of descriptions that do are also similes, such as the aforementioned "his words cut like a dagger". The fact that something is a simile doesn't discount it.

Except the third, those do sound like a synesthete's perceptions

Again, this isn't relevant as far as the rhetorical device is concerned. It's entirely separate from the condition.

But I agree with you that descriptions that come close to true synaesthesia tend to go too far to create the effect most authors would want, which is to bring depth to a sensory experience that the reader can relate to.

I would really, *really* like someone to post examples they've read that they think work well. I'll keep an eye out in what I'm reading.

 

[HareBrain]

OK I found these two easily in a Reddit post. This is what I'm talking about:

She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight. - Raymond Chandler

The sound was utterly dry, desiccated, as if you could crumble it in your hands. -Haruki Murakami

 

[THX1138]

Found some:

“The word would fill her mind for a few minutes with a single color: not an unpleasant sensation but still an intrusion… Patriarch: Brown, she thought, a temple of a word, a shiny red brown, like the surface of a chestnut.” - Julia Glass

“Back to the region where the sun is silent.” - Dante Alighieri

 

[HareBrain]

I remember reading Stephen Fry talk about how he and High Laurie chose who played who in the TV show Jeeves and Wooster. The choice partly came down to Laurie's voice being "blue and gold" whereas Fry's own was "dark brown", which I thought was perfectly accurate.

 

[THX1138]

The movie Ratatouille came to mind in the scene near the beginning where Remy is in the old farmhouse with the tray of cheese and fruit:

Closing his eyes, Remy took a bite of the cheese that tasted like the smooth yellow popping of jazz bongos. Next, he took a bite of a ripe strawberry that filled his mouth with the rich red swirls of symphonic perfection. Then he ate both together, the orchestral colors of a grand finally filled his mouth that softly faded away into a smile on his content face.