Metaphorically Speaking

Metaphor is the crux of description. Why? Because it does what all writers set out to make their readers do, which is think! Metaphors do not necessarily allow readers to perceive things the way the writer perceived them, but instead allows them to perceive things in their own unique way. This is because people do not think in words, but in metaphor. Is the word scary indeed scary? Or the word terrifying, indeed terrifying? Of course not. You can imagine those words as big, hairy, slimy, and toothy as you want, but you will never be chased through your nightmares by bubble letters. 

Ex: He emerged from the shadows, stunning her with his hateful expression.

                            vs

 He slithered from the shadows, she was paralyzed by the venom in his eyes. 

Above are two sentences. The first doesn't use any metaphor at all, but you as the reader could still get the gist of it. There is a man, he likes lurking shadows, following this particular woman, and he is upset with her at the moment. It tells a story, but it is very much "in the now". We can't infer much about the man in this sentence, nor can we really infer much about the woman's reaction, is she frightened? Is she surprised? She's stunned, but one can be stunned in many different ways. 

Conversely, the second sentence uses two snake metaphors. What does it mean to be a snake? Well, being a zodiac serpent, I can tell you it gives people a negative impression usually, but also allows judgement of character. Because he "slithers" from the shadows, he is now sneaking, therefore he does this often, he is a good sneaker, kind of a creep, one might say. There is more to say of venom than hate as well. Hate is difficult to gauge. Venom implies a curse of some kind, one that threatens to kill you. Now this man who was angry, is now homicidal. As an added bonus to all this, some people find snakes genuinely terrifying. 

Below there are two links. The first is a TED talk by James Geary about metaphor to whet your appetite, and the second is to a translation of Aristotle's writings on metaphor. He gives a few interesting grammatical equations that I am trying out to my blissful success.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/james_geary_metaphorically_speaking.html

http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/401s07/arismeta.htm

Yours in storytelling,

-Don

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Weekly Gist: Comments on Humanity

I figure I ought to do my first Weekly Gist on something familiar to my style of writing. This gist comes from an article in the February of 2012, Writer's Digest Magazine. It is titled "4 Rules for Sci-Fi Fantasy Protagonists", and was originally written by Steven Harper. The main stress in this article is put the philosophy specific to the aforementioned genres, inhuman characters. 

Harper opens up by telling us to "show them (the protagonist) fighting the inner beast". Humans themselves experience this. That is, most of us know what it's like to have a problem that eats away at us, whether it lasts for a day or a lifetime. Well a being like a werewolf, one who transforms into a flesh rending beast under a full moon, dramatizes such a feeling several times over. It brings it to light, and makes a statement about that interesting part of the human psyche.

When a werewolf in mid-transformation yells, "Run!" to his lover, does it have a similar feeling to an addict crying out in withdrawal?

Harper's next point has to do with the physical and mental transformation his theoretical protagonist goes through. Transformation, in this case refers to change, something that again happens to all of us (noticing a pattern?) either gradually or suddenly, a crucial character/plot element. The difference in fantasy and sci-fi writing as opposed to other types of writing is simply simile and metaphor. A story that takes place in the here and now might give a character wolf-like traits to portray aspects of that person's personality, but one of the aforementioned genres can implore the same message in a character who is in fact half wolf half man. See the effect?

The next point, and my favorite as a junior philosopher, is that completely nonhuman characters can make a statement about humanity. In how many sci-fi/fantasy books, shows, or movies are humans considered inferior in some way? I know that Optimus Prime in the first Transformers movie tells his fellow transformers that the humans are a young race and have much to learn. In Star Trek, the Vulcans consider emotions silly or even dangerous, when they are arguably what has driven humanity to do everything it has ever done. Okay, well that works for fantasy/sci-fi, but what about those folks who don't want to write those genres? To this question I propose that even something as commonplace as religious traditions of other cultures can seem alien in the right (or wrong) times and places (the Mayans are a potent example of this).

Lastly, Harper makes a point about keeping the wonder alive. I'm not going to discuss this in detail because I believe it is the obvious reason anyone reads or writes sci-fi/fantasy. The bottom line is, immerse yourself and your readers in another world by making your characters feel what you want your readers to feel or else you wont get the reaction you're looking for.

(Did he just waste my life stating the obvious?) Of course not. Here's my interpretation of the article. Harper, in a roundabout way, is basically giving guidelines for creating any story when concerning a main protagonist. Therefore, I believe this information is better applied to sub characters for real potency. The gist of what I am saying is, a main character no matter what story is going to face inner beasts, evolve in some way, and comment on human behavior, but all of these metaphors and tasks can be embodied easier in sub characters in the fantasy/sci-fi genre. In the here and now, the most extreme we can get, lay in abnormal but still familiar contrasts in cultural and lifestyle choices. In sub characters of the here and now, such things are hard to define without making the story about someone other than the main character(s), but in sci-fi/fantasy, there is a huge difference between a human and an ogre, so the difference is more quickly interpreted by your readers and requires less of an explanation. Fantasy/sci-fi stories can use these tools have to comment on the norms of daily life more subtly and freely than other genres.

Watch for next week's gist and plenty of info in between! Don't forget to drop by the readers' section if you want to see what I've been writing! Please, please, please don't forget to comment on or share something you liked, thanks!

Yours in storytelling,
Don Previe

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