Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Armed with metaphor ...

... Beyond Compare. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... a raft of modern brain scientists are pursuing the theory that metaphor matches the ways in which we organize our thinking. Mr. Geary's book is an effort to popularize their work, and he succeeds in making the case that metaphor is the meat of language and not a sauce.
See also: Author James Geary Gets Metaphorical On Us. (Also from Dave.)
In the comment below, Dave quotes Neil Ward: I try to use metaphors--cliches or other types--as rarely as possible, although occasionally offering a well thought-out and complex metaphor in an explicit context, such that it surprises the reader into confronting its implications, seems useful.
This seems to conflate metaphors with clichés. But properly employed, metaphor is anything but clichés. It is an alchemy of language and perception. "Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands," E.E. Cummings wrote. Nothing clichéd about that.

Post bumped.

1 comment:

  1. Among the comments on Mr Felten's book review:

    * Neil Ward wrote:

    Yes, all speech and communication is intrinsically metaphoric; but it is a very worthwhile style exercise to reduce reliance upon metaphors, which reliance is, after all, mere laziness. Don't want the bother of describing the features and function of your idea? Pull in an analogy from an established and recognized record, and transfer (I almost wrote "palm off") the task of communicating your idea to the reader's or auditor's own associations--which may vary from your own conceptualization. I'm not as concerned as this reviewer (and the text reviewed) is about metaphoric speech's introduction of incidious biases as I am about such speech's lack of rigor, especially in dealing with novel concepts.

    I try to use metaphors--cliches or other types--as rarely as possible, although occasionally offering a well thought-out and complex metaphor in an explicit context, such that it surprises the reader into confronting its implications, seems useful.

    Johnson's biography of Jonathan Swift notes Swift's style's almost complete lack of metaphorical expression; Johnson seems to intend this observation as high praise.


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