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Henry74 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Tire tread

Hi everyone,

can you please help me with a short passage? It's from the incipit of Watchmen.

- Dog carcass in the alley this morning. Tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.

How do you read the underlined sentence? My best guess is, Tired, I tread on its burst stomach.
I originally thought that burst stomach was an hyperbole for empy stomach so I read it I'm tired of treading (this city) on an empty stomach. But then I connected it to Dog carcass, which led me to my former reading.
What do you think?

Thank you for your help.
H.
  

Top answer

Henry74 Tire tread on burst stomach. There is the mark of a tire of a car or truck on the now visible stomach of the dog which has spilled out onto the pavement, so it's obvious that the dog was killed by a passing car or truck. ) CJ Images.

— CalifJim

  • Henry74 Tire tread on burst stomach.
  • There is the mark of a tire of a car or truck on the now visible stomach of the dog which has spilled out onto the pavement, so it's obvious that the dog was killed by a passing car or truck.
  • ) CJ Images.
  • osb&fp=d9edd8ecd7adbf1d&biw=1024&bih=574
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3 Answers
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Henry74Tire tread on burst stomach.
There is the mark of a tire of a car or truck on the now visible stomach of the dog which has spilled out onto the pavement, so it's obvious that the dog was killed by a passing car or truck.

(A tire tread is the repeated pattern of raised and lowered areas on the tire that allow it to maintain traction with the roa
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It is not a sentence, it is a ****** of stream of consciousness. That style of writing is meant to seem like a person's raw thoughts. The bit you are asking about is a shocking visual image: the dead dog has been run over by a car, and you can see the imprint of the tire tread in what remains of his stomach, which has burst. The pattern of grooves and ridges on a tire is called the tread.
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Right, sorry.
In my defense, I don't see any dogs or tire marks in what I'm looking at. But this is no excuse for not thinking about tire as a noun.

Thank you for your answer.
H.
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