Screw you, Metaphor!

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A friend today was telling me of a song where the lyric was something like "when a river flows into the ocean, it's no longer a river. yadda yadda yaddda be yourself & don't join the crowd, blah blah blah..."

And I said, "but when a river joins the ocean, it becomes part of something greater. So the metaphor can work both ways, which means it's stupid. You can make any comparison work - like, 'If you stay on the road that takes you to where you want to go, you're sure to get there... but if you take a different road, you may go where you didn't know you needed to.' Oh, sorry for ruining your favorite song, by the way."

Then I got to thinking.. are all metaphors so trite and stupid, or can I just not think of any good ones right now?

― Dave225, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Apologies to people who thought this thread was going to be about metaphors for screwing... which is a metaphor itself... and a damn good one. Ah, metaphors have been vindicated!

Seriously, no they haven't. I'm still not convinced that they aren't trite. (Although sometimes they can show creativity.)

― Dave225, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but only the trite achieves true pathos. or something

― gareth, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave, I think you need to sort of keep in mind that metaphors are not meant as proof of concepts, but basically just illustrations of them, so while those road metaphors are unbearably trite, they both still manage to communicate a general way of looking at the world that has nothing whatsoever to do with roads. You see, that's mostly what metaphors do. So, um, being literal- minded in the "but if life is like a road then is there a turning lane?" sense is sort of to pretend that the road itself is supposed to have an opinion on the analogy, which it doesn't. Actual road- experience is not going to empirically solve road-less-taken type conundrums, unfortunately, it's just a handy metaphor you see, metaphor.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Similarly those two takes on the river metaphor both very clearly express viewpoints on things having little to do with rivers, and sort of more quickly and anyway less abstractedly than actually just spelling out the reasoning behind them. Cause that's what metaphors are, like, for.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven years pass...

“Boehner has cooked up a bait and switch to give the Senate a hall pass to fund Obamacare while pretending not to,” Dean Clancy, the vice president of health care policy at the conservative activist group FreedomWorks, told TPM.

triple mixed metaphor!! can anyone identify a quadruple?

― Z S, Tuesday, 10 September 2013 19:27 (twelve years ago)

No, but I must post the first thing that always comes to mind when I hear this word...

A metaphor is a glorious thing,
A diamond ring,
The first day of summer
A metaphor is a breath of fresh air,
A turn-on,
An aphrodisiac
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors
Use them wisely,
Use them well,
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness
A metaphor is a popular place,
A pocket space,
A multiplex showing,
A remake whose action is louder than words,
She whispers "can we be going, going?"
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors
Use them wisely,
Use them well,
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness
Whose up for a metaphor?
(We're up for a metaphor)
Are you chicks up for a metaphor?
(Yes, we're up for a metaphor)
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't mix them
(We, we, we won't mix them)
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't mix them
(We wouldn't dream of mixing them)
Use them wisely,
Use them well,
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness
A metaphor is a glorious thing,
A diamond ring,
The first day of summer
A metaphor is a fresh air,
A turn-on,
An aphrodisiac
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors
A metaphor is a glorious thing,
A diamond ring,
The first day of summer
A metaphor is a breath fresh air,
A turn-on,
An aphrodisiac
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors
Use them wisely,
Use them well,
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness
A metaphor is a glorious thing,
(Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig)
A metaphor is a breath of fresh air,
(Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig)
A metaphor is a glorious thing,
(Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig)
A metaphor is a breath of fresh air,
(Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig)
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors,
Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors
Use them wisely,
Use them well,
And you'll never know the hell of loneliness

― money, chicken and other DNA (sleeve), Tuesday, 10 September 2013 19:48 (twelve years ago)

What's a meta for anyway?

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 10 September 2013 19:53 (twelve years ago)

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