Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Friday, April 30, 2010

U and V is for UltraViolet

THIS IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER my 100 Random Thoughts Contest. Click on the link in the sidebar at right to enter and win a unique prize! Winners will be announced next week. Come join the fun!

Ultra: Latin from ultra meaning beyond, from Latin ulter meaning situated beyond (more at ulerior....)

Violet: Middle English, from Middle French violete, diminutive of viole, from Latin viola (no relation to the viola, a musical instrument, which is Italian and Spanish in origin.)


Ultraviolet is "situated beyond the visible spectrum at its violet end."

I wonder how many of you remember walking into a head-shop and going into a black light lit back-room (now there's a tongue twister) that was papered with posters all glowing eerie colors; green-yellow, orange, blue-white.... White tshirts, fingernails, eyeballs, all fluoresced a ghostly violet. My friends and I liked to go into those rooms just to see how funny we looked. None of us were really interested in the posters. 1. They were too garish. 2. We would have needed to buy a black light and have a dark room in which to hang the posters. 3. We'd rather have spent our money on albums.

I know you're wondering. How am I going to relate ultraviolet light to writing?

It's like this. Sometimes the characters in books or stories appear or seem to be one thing, but when a black light is focused on them...well, ghostly traces of flaws or dreams or fears show up.

Readers tend to walk into a normal looking room. It's the writer's job to turn on the black light. But beware. Too much and the character turns into an fluorescent imitation of Elvis. Too little and the character is a stick figure.

12 comments:

  1. I'm bummed I didn't find your contest sooner. By the time I found my way over here, I only had a couple days left which SHOULD be enough for any other writer, but for a hack like me it puts pressure on the brain cells to produce on command and that's just not good...

    LOVE the word analysis. I'm learning so much!

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  2. Bish once again this is beautiful!!! I'm addicted to that picture, it's so cool, and how creative of you to do two in one!!!

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  3. Oh Miss V! Just through any old 100words together!

    Thanks Jen, India and Sherrie. I do love to play with analogies.

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  4. So true! Bish, you have a great way of turning the random towards writing.

    Have a great weekend!

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  5. I love that pic. I find that pictures that aren't ordered perfectly often inspire me the most. I love fantasy and sci-fi farscapes the most because they are filled with things that should not be but are. It gets me thinking about what lies around corners and between the spaces of things, rather than the view in front of me.

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  6. Great post! I love the picture too. Very bizarre!

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  7. Oooh, I love that picture.

    Did I enter your contest yet? I have to go look. So many contests lately, I can't keep up.

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  8. Bish, entire worlds have been laid open to my eyes with UV illumination under the microscope. And like the room you describe, what's beneath the surface, whether pretty or ugly, is always fascinating.

    I've never ever been in a room like this you've described.

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  9. "It's the writer's job to turn on the black light." I like that! :)

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Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!