different types of beams and plaster recorded on the ceilings
In the book "Vixen-03" by Clive Cussler there is a fragment about an entertainer who is recalling her previous life:

"Faces, she thought. How strange that she couldn't remember their shapes and features. And yet the bedrooms and their decor stood out vividly. The feel of the mattress, the design on the wallpaper, the fixtures in the adjoining bathroom, were still etched in her mind along with the different types of beams and plaster she had recorded on the ceilings."

Cannot clearly understand the last part of the last sentence - what are these "types of beams and plaster" which can be "recorded on the ceilings"? Seems somehow illogical...

In advance, thank you for your answers!

Question

different types of beams and plaster recorded on the ceilings
In the book "Vixen-03" by Clive Cussler there is a fragment about an entertainer who is recalling her previous life:

"Faces, she thought. How strange that she couldn't remember their shapes and features. And yet the bedrooms and their decor stood out vividly. The feel of the mattress, the design on the wallpaper, the fixtures in the adjoining bathroom, were still etched in her mind along with the different types of beams and plaster she had recorded on the ceilings."

Cannot clearly understand the last part of the last sentence - what are these "types of beams and plaster" which can be "recorded on the ceilings"? Seems somehow illogical...

In advance, thank you for your answers!

Answer

The writer is being overly poetic. It just means she remembers what they look like (maybe from lying bed looking up at them a lot?) The "types of beams and plasters" : the "beams" are pieces of structural wood that sometimes in view on the ceiling, especially in old houses. "Plasters" just means the textured ceiling material.

Answer

Thank you for your comments, guys! Jean, I made my question resolved because I had understood  the meaning of the sentence and didn't want anyone be bothered with it any more. Thank you!

Answer

What the author is saying is that the woman in the story has recorded in her memory the different features of the ceiling. If you Google "ceiling beams" and "ceiling plaster" you will see what it means.
If you aren't so quick to choose the best answer then you will get more answers to help you get a better understanding. Once you choose a best answer, it closes the question and the person below didn't even answer your question about "recorded on the ceiling."

Answer

I don't suppose she had recorded anything on the ceilings. It would have been better written as "... what she had recorded of the different types of beams and plaster on the ceilings".

Answers · 5

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