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Local Authors => Writing Group => Topic started by: Natalie Perkins on January 28, 2010, 03:17:28 AM

Title: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: Natalie Perkins on January 28, 2010, 03:17:28 AM

I need to think of things that sound really ugly. That make you cover your ears and go "oooo, that's ugly."
That's the kind of ugly I'm talking about.
If it has anything to do with electricty or mechanics or automobiles, or pretty much anything invented after 1900, I can't use it.

It's for a book, by the way. Ah prologues can be so cruel.

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: Bookstore Guy on January 28, 2010, 04:45:55 PM

Read China Mieville.  He can give you an idea of ugly sounds (and other things) that are done perfectly.  His descriptions are very visceral.

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: Shivertongue on January 29, 2010, 05:28:09 AM

I've heard the sound of a horse screaming is rather ugly and gut-wrenching. I couldn't describe it in detail, having never heard it, so not sure how much that helps..

Everything else I'm currently able to think of requires electricity or technology, so I'm just gonna second the China Mieville suggestion.

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: Lord Terrisman on January 31, 2010, 03:29:10 AM

Would an ugly sound be someone screaming or  someone dropping a pot and making a really loud noise?

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: ryos on February 09, 2010, 09:52:15 AM

The ugliest noise I've ever heard that has nothing to do with technology came out of a pig's mouth. Agitated pigs make a lot of noise, and it's horrifying. It sounds stupid to say it's horrifying to hear a pig squeal, but wait 'till you hear it. It's so loud, and visceral, and just ugly. It sounds like something is getting tortured.

In Nicaragua (where I served an LDS mission), people just randomly keep pigs. Oftentimes they butcher their own pigs. When those pigs know the knife is coming…when the squeal crescendos, then sharply cuts off…sheesh, I'm creeping myself out. It's almost worse to write about it than it was to be there.

Or, how about a man's angry scream, followed by running footsteps and the sound of something repeatedly striking flesh? Heard that in Nicaragua too, sitting in someone's (fenced-in) yard. By the time we got to the gate, there was a crowd in the street but we didn't see anyone hurt. I still don't know what happened. Not a happy moment, that.

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: Natalie Perkins on February 11, 2010, 05:15:57 AM

Thank you!

Title: Re: I need ugly sounds!
Post by: filoph94 on March 10, 2010, 12:48:43 AM

The ugliest sound I have ever heard was my friends nose breaking. It was a mix between a crunch, wet soudning squish, and thnd