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.
Yours in storytelling,
-Don
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