Metaphors Like...

 I do not feel confident with metaphors. I think this comes from reading Raymond Chandler; his metaphors are rather florid.

Counter Craft's Yes, Metaphors Should Actually Make Sense left me feeling my lack of confidence is not such a bad thing.

Sometimes I wonder if a lot of writers treat metaphors as just a vehicle for vibes. Rather than making an abstraction more evocative through a specific visual image, modern metaphors are often lyrical language that doesn’t quite mean anything. A lot of modern fiction—across genres—seems to be filled with lines like “he had a mind that minced existence into binaries” or “joy pirouetted across her face” or “his smile was a sharpened dagger dipped in poison” or “at the sound, her soul rippled with fear.” These offer sonic pleasures and a sense of mood, perhaps. But the actual metaphor doesn’t work if you stop to think about it.

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When I think about metaphors, I always think of Orwell’s excellent essay “Politics and the English Language” where he argues “a newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image.” I think of this essay because it was the first time I actually saw someone explain what was wrong with clichés. Sure, clichés are lazy. But Orwell makes a more specific point that cliché metaphors cease to function as metaphors because they no longer evoke their images. Think of how often you hear a phrase like “threw his teammates under the bus” or “has an ax to grind” or “Achilles’ heel” or what not. Do you actually see LeBron James or whoever tossing teammates under an oncoming Greyhound? Do you see a grinding ax or an image of a Greek warrior’s foot? When metaphors are overused, we stop seeing them.

The vibe-based metaphor is the same problem from the other end. We don’t see the image because the image either isn’t there or isn’t coherent. And so the metaphor similarly fails at the fundamental goal of aiding our understanding.

As usual, good advice from Counter Craft. 

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