On The One Hand … ‘”There is one datum I can adduce, I believe,’ said Lebret, scratching his beard with his left hand and manoeuvring a cigarette out of its case with his left …” (Adam Roberts, Twenty Trillion Leagues under the Sea, 2014)

Eyeballs in the Sky. “His eyes seemed to disconnect themselves.” (Robert Moore Williams, To the End of Time, July 1950 Super Science Stories)

Easily Amused Corpse Dept. “For half an hour they left the man on his bench. His dead eyes were open and seemed to smile slightly at a photograph of the Minister of Rest and Culture.” (John Blackburn, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, 1958) Okay, okay, the era of the editorial three-martini lunch?

Dept of Guilt. “… This planet and its creatures! The erection/detumescence of each instant he’d shared with them lay on his awareness with scalding pressure. He felt like a bivalve at the tide-edge of the universe. History was collapsing within him and he could only remember the ages of his crime …” (Frank Herbert, The Heaven Makers, 1968) ) Oh no, not the Dune author, Frank Herbert– oh well, twas the 60’s–did he drink three martinis also, with his editor?

More from The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order by Stephen R. Donaldson, 1994

“The Gap into Clench and Aura.”
“Angus’ heart clenched in a grimace which didn’t show on his face.”
“Her shoulders hunched into a clench of disgust, which she deflected into a shrug.”
“Nick let out a clenched laugh.”
“Above his open mouth, his eyes blinked like cries.”
“His aura yowled of furies that didn’t show on his face.”
“The smears on his lenses refracted his blue gaze into streams of hope and apprehension.”
“His eyes slid off as if they’d lost their grip.”
“The air had grown viscid with mortality.”