From A Swim in the Pond, George Saunders writes:
Out the door of my writing shed are some things. What things? Yes, exactly. It's up to me to tell you, and in telling you, I will shortly be making them. how I tell them is what they'll be. Are those "shaggy sad redwoods, speaking of the long defeat that is life"? "Proud, magnificent red-brown friends of my working days, connecting me with innumerable generations past"? "A stand of redwoods"? "Some trees"? Depends on the day, depends on my mind. All these descriptions are true, and none of them is, at all.
Later, he notes that outside his writing shed are some things.
The hose is lying out there, pale green in the hot sun.
It is not, by the way, "greenish-looking, on this hot, sunny day." It's "pale green in the hot sun." Why? Because it's better that way. Why is it better? Because I prefer it.
Well, we can disagree about that. Above, as you read "pale green in the hot sun," did you see that hose? Your reading energy did something at that phrase. Were you in or out? With me or against me? Compelled slightly forward or held slightly back.
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