unwanted associations

[ratcreature]

Am I the only one who gets horrible associations if in a romantic scene the POV character describes their partner as having "liquid eyes"? Like horror images of liquefying eyeballs.

(ETA: It does not help if later the eye colors -- don't ask why there are several, it's that "hazel" phenomenon -- are described as "melting" into each other.)

Comments

[calime]

*snickers* Personally, for me, cows (with their huge, soulful, wetly gleaming eyeballs and looong lashes) tend to come to mind, unfortunately, but yeah, the literal interpretation does have some merit.

[ratcreature]

I always thought cows were the *intended* association, because it is meant to convey a soft look or something.

[calime]

Brrr, I'd hope not 'intended' ... or the intenders have never considered what's behind the 'soft look' ... for example, very sharp hipbones at a perfect height to clobber one's spleen ...
Cows, to my experience, tend to believe romance is dead and a way to one's heart is through four stomachs :) Also, there is nothing soft about them, they're very no-nonsense critters.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, though most cows I've met (not that many, I'm a city person) don't seem to be truly vicious at least, unlike goats. Goats are smart and ruthless (and of course they have rather freaky eyes too). I still remember a traumatic petting zoo experience I had when I was little. I have no idea why anyone thought goats to be a great choice for a petting zoo in the first place,even the small ones, but I, intending to do the usual petting zoo exchange of food pellets against allowing petting, was instead overrun by a group of them so that the whole box fell out of my hand and they got the food without submitting to the petting, and then they rifled through my pockets while I was down. Not that I blame them, I mean, it was the most efficient way to get to the food without having to endure yet another annoying kid, but I've been suspicious of them ever since.

[calime]

Mmm, yes, agreed on all counts...cows are mostly too much about energy conservation to be vicious, they're just effiecient. Also, I had a traumatic experience very much like yours, but mine was with sheep on the pasture as a small toddler. I was feeding them bread which unfortunately ran out while I was in the middle of the herd ... It can be a very ... fear-and-respect-towards-natural-disasters-inducing experience to look UP into tens of hungry sheepeyes... To this day, people for some reason don't understand when I tell them sheep can have evil eyes;)