Pointy

{Spoiler alert! for the novel James, by Percival Everett}

A delightful, clever use of pointy.

From Part Three, Chapter Eight of James, by the prolific author Percival Everett:

My hand had slipped into my bundle and found the pistol. . . . the pointy end of such a thing speaks loudly, and when I leveled the barrel at the judge, he stopped in his tracks.

Perhaps any sentient adult living a capitalistic life in the Plasticene era / age of the sixth mass extinction should feel guilty about spending time reading a printed book manifesting Thomas Hood’s quoted adage “the easiest reading is d_______d hard writing,” rather than thinking up everyday ways to address matters of greater import. 

But even several days after finishing Mr. Everett’s James, I am still deriving joy from it and rereading passages (and trying to figure out how James came by the match and, when the time came, what he struck the match upon).

Morrow Point Reservoir, Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Gunnison, Colorado, July 25th, 2016