what's the meaning of "hewn from a different light"?

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The colours that fall across the landscape of this remote north-eastern corner of India are hewn from a different light. Go there and you will see.

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Type: Question • Score: 5 • Views: 2,318 • Replies: 31

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@kkfengdao,

It means the same as cut from a different cloth, but not as poetic, IMHO as it's hard to cut light.

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@Ceili,

Thanks！

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@kkfengdao,

It would suggest there is something unique about the colours of that particular part of India.

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Hewn is the past participle of to hew, which means to cut, in the sense of cutting down trees, or chopping wood. It's a clumsy construction. I agree with Ceili . . . how do you cut light?

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@Setanta,

I quite like it, it's poetic so it doesn't have to make sense. Hewn puts me in mind of the phrase rough hewn cloth, which would fit in with India's global importance in textiles. Can't you cut light with a prism?

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@izzythepush,

You can, if you like. I have never encountered the expression "rough hewn cloth." To me, it makes no more sense than "hewn light."

OK, this is from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, a definition of rough hewn:

1: being in a rough, unsmoothed, or unfinished state : crudely formed <rough–hewn beams>

2: lacking refinement <he was rather attractive, in a rough–hewn kind of way — Jan Speas>

. . . which would encompass "rough hewn cloth."

This is the definition of hewn with which i am familiar:

hewn - cut or shaped with hard blows of a heavy cutting instrument like an ax or chisel; "a house built of hewn logs"; "rough-hewn stone"; "a path hewn through the underbrush"

(The source is the Free Online Dictionary, which cites the American Heritage Dictionary.)

So i guess we'll just have to charge me with a lack of imagination.

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@Setanta,

If everyone liked the same things it would be a very rough hewn world.

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@izzythepush,

Very boring, certainly. Fresco has told me to go take a nap, so i'll be away for a while.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

how do you cut light?

Find a unicorn. Feed it beans.

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@DrewDad,

At last. Something I understand.

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@kkfengdao,

Colour is metaphorically "hewn" from light in the sense that a reflective surface separates/cuts ambient light into those colour components which it absorbs and those components which it re-transmits (which we perceive as its "colour").
Since ambient light can vary in its components (e.g. yellow light contains no blue component) this will affect the perceived colour of a landscape. Note also that ambient light is the sum of all transmitted light including source of illumination and reflections from adjacent surfaces.

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@DrewDad,

If you feed a unicorn beans, it will certainly cut something . . .

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@Setanta,

I don't like that dictionary definition of "a path hewn through the undergrowth".

You hew wood, or stone. You don't hew undergrowth. Bad dictionary.

1 Reply

@McTag,

How does "rough hewn cloth" strike you, then?

1 Reply

Cloth seems to have little to do with the metaphorical use in this instance. On the other hand, the fact that wood and stone carving are traditional crafts in NE India, or that the reflective terrain is rugged, may add further intentional dimensionality to the metaphor on the part of the author. It would be interesting to see whether the author goes on to describe such handicrafts or had mentioned them prior to his landscape description, since the semantic import of a metaphor tends to extend beyond a single sentence to the ambience of the whole piece.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

How does "rough hewn cloth" strike you, then?

It strikes me like a wet flannel in the kisser.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

Hewn is the past participle of to hew,

Hewn is the past participle of [to] hew - no 'to'.

Quote:

how do you cut light?

But in your next post, you give an example of hewing a person.

2: lacking refinement <he was rather attractive, in a rough–hewn kind of way — Jan Speas>

Surely you have heard of the word metaphor. Here's a definition. I'll highlight the pertinent sections for you.

▸ noun: a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

Quote:

how do you cut light?

With a prism for one. In point of fact, the atmosphere can act in this manner. Ever seen a rainbow, lad?

1 Reply

@JTT,

Nice to know there's two of us with a similar explanation.

1 Reply

@fresco,

I'm always amazed at how folks can write contradictory stuff in successive sentences.

When Set gets to pontificating on language issues, someone has to shoot him down before he runs hog wild.

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what's the meaning of "hewn from a different light"?

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