I keep wanting to say...

Woollybear · Aug 24, 2018

The memory doused him. As in, you're minding your own business, your guard goes down, and this damned memory takes over all of your mental faculties and you have to face it. I'm certain I've read this usage of memory and being doused by memory, before. But I'm told that what I'm saying is giving a different image.

(It's not the same as being 'flooded' with memories. Thats a wellspring of many memories coming back at once.)

Do you understand what I mean when I say:

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault doused him.

Is there a better word for doused? Flooded isn't right. Maybe drawing it out - memory crashed against him like an ocean wave.

Enlightened · Aug 24, 2018

Patty said:
The memory doused him. As in, you're minding your own business, your guard goes down, and this damned memory takes over all of your mental faculties and you have to face it. I'm certain I've read this usage of memory and being doused by memory, before. But I'm told that what I'm saying is giving a different image.

(It's not the same as being 'flooded' with memories. Thats a wellspring of many memories coming back at once.)

Do you understand what I mean when I say:

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault doused him.

Is there a better word for doused? Flooded isn't right. Maybe drawing it out - memory crashed against him like an ocean wave.

Some alternatives: Overcame/Overcome, Burdened, Engulfed, Overtook.

OldHat63 · Aug 24, 2018

Patty said:
The memory doused him. As in, you're minding your own business, your guard goes down, and this damned memory takes over all of your mental faculties and you have to face it. I'm certain I've read this usage of memory and being doused by memory, before. But I'm told that what I'm saying is giving a different image.

(It's not the same as being 'flooded' with memories. Thats a wellspring of many memories coming back at once.)

Do you understand what I mean when I say:

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault doused him.

Is there a better word for doused? Flooded isn't right. Maybe drawing it out - memory crashed against him like an ocean wave.

inundated

verb (used with object), in·un·dat·ed, in·un·dat·ing.

1. to flood; cover or overspread with water; deluge.
2. to overwhelm: inundated with letters of protest.

How's that?

Chase · Aug 24, 2018

Patty said:
Do you understand what I mean when I say:

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault doused him.

I do understand the meaning, and one such stray metaphor per novel isn't a huge stain on the average reader.

It's not a mixed metaphor but almost as troublesome because of being isolated on its own. Is it possible to extend the metaphor by location to bring home the water effect? If not the situation below, then a similar setup like boat-ebb-flow-douse?

Relaxing in the houseboat to the evening's ebb of music and the flow of whiskey, he thought life didn't get much better when memory of the assault thoroughly doused him.

M.S. Wiggins · Aug 24, 2018

Just a possibility that came to mind (plus a couple more

):

Patty said:
Relaxing into the evening, ~~into the~~ numbed in/from whiskey and submersed in music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when ~~memory of the assault doused~~ a/the memory assaulted him.

Marissa D · Aug 24, 2018

The first usage of "douse" that comes to mind for me is that of quenching, as in dousing a fire or a candle--so it's not working for me in your sentence. I kinda like "deluge", though.

Anna Spargo-Ryan · Aug 24, 2018

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I like it!

BethS · Aug 24, 2018

Patty said:
when memory of the assault doused him..

OK, to douse means to drench, to throw or pour liquid on something, to extinguish, to plunge something into a liquid.

For me, "douse" doesn't quite work there. "Drench" might be closer to what you're looking for (it lacks the extra meanings that "douse" has). But actually, maybe what's drenching him are the sensations and emotions associated with the assault, rather than just a memory of it. Maybe you need to approach the metaphor in a different way.

Woollybear · Aug 24, 2018

I am thinking I was exposed to the metaphor at a formative age and it stuck. But several people have this negative reaction.

Or it could be that feeling doused is how I experience that sort of thing and others experience that sort of memory differently.

It is like my brain is drenched and soaked in the memory and my brain becomes a soggy mess of *that memory* -- I'm doused by it.

Drenched is close but meh. I think it fails to work for too many people but I'm glad I'm not alone.

OldHat63 · Aug 25, 2018

Patty said:
Do you understand what I mean when I say:

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault doused him.

Is there a better word for doused? Flooded isn't right. Maybe drawing it out - memory crashed against him like an ocean wave.

Relaxing into the evening, into the whiskey and music, he thought life didn't get much better than this when memory of the assault suddenly cascaded over him.

Too wordy?

Just spitballing here. I figure even if it's not useful to you, it might jar something out of a hidden cranny of your mind you didn't know was there.

Harlequin · Aug 25, 2018

If you like dousing, use it.

I enjoy unusual verbs. It's different and suggestive. It may not be exactly accurate for what you're conveying, but that maybe doesn't matter, as long as it's evocative.

Aggy B. · Aug 25, 2018

See also: invaded, overwhelmed, muscled in, broke through, crept up on, slipped in the door, washed over/through, filled, submerged.

Unfortunately, for me anyway, doused/dousing/douse implies another active participant. Someone has to be doing to the dousing.

Bacchus · Aug 25, 2018

I would probably use something like engulfed or overwhelmed, but as Harlequin says, write it the way you want it to sound!

Some will like it, others won't. It will always be thus.

Tazlima · Aug 25, 2018

Put me in the "I like it" group. I'm picturing a memory hitting someone like a bucket of ice water dumped on their head. Unexpected, shocking, forces you to gasps, and completely drawing your thoughts from whatever else you might have been pondering at that moment.

BethS · Aug 25, 2018

Patty said:
It is like my brain is drenched and soaked in the memory and my brain becomes a soggy mess of *that memory* -- I'm doused by it.

If you want to use "douse," you surely can, but it might help to extend the metaphor a little. Include a little more description of what it's like to be doused with a memory--just as you did right there--so the reader gets a clearer picture.

indianroads · Aug 25, 2018

The memory doused him.

The memory flooded his mind.
The memory rushed through his mind, leaving him stymied and unable to move.
?

Woollybear · Aug 25, 2018

I think making it longer works for me, because those sorts of sentences are nice to have now and then. I'm playing with it.

Toto Too · Aug 25, 2018

...when that terrible memory doused her brain like a bucket of ice water.

neandermagnon · Aug 25, 2018

I like it, and I agree that extending the metaphor a little, like Toto Too's example, would make it stronger. But even on its own I was fine with it. It's clear what you mean and it's clearly metaphorical.

Locked · Aug 26, 2018

It works for me. I imagine his physical reaction to a flashback could be comparable to suddenly being doused with liquid, so it seems appropriate to me.

I keep wanting to say...

Woollybear

Enlightened

Always Learning

OldHat63

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

M.S. Wiggins

"The Moving Finger writes..."

Marissa D

Scribe of the girls in the basement

Anna Spargo-Ryan

Just pokin' about

BethS

Woollybear

OldHat63

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

Bacchus

Tazlima

BethS

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Woollybear

Toto Too

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!

Locked