My favorite metaphors
I'm planning on starting a discussion on metaphors. It may take me a while. In the course of thinking and reading, I started a list of my favorite metaphors. Here they are. Please feel free to add your own.
NOTICE - SIMILIES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
From “The Courier” by Richard Shindell
[i]Crouching in the trench
Clutching bayonettes
A hundred men
All knee-to-chest
A hundred marionettes
I am the string pulled by the sure hand
Animating what was still
I am invisible and faithful
I am a courier[/i]
From “Saturday They’ll All be Back Again” by David Wilcox
[i]Johnny's got the hunger of a high school heart
And a tank full of minimum-wage[/i]
From “Wild Grapes” by Robert Frost
[i]'Drop,' he said,
'I'll catch you in my arms. It isn't far.'
(Stated in lengths of him it might not be.)
'Drop or I'll shake the tree and shake you down.'
Grim silence on my part as I sank lower,
My small wrists stretching till they showed the banjo strings.[/i]
Franz Kafka quote
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone”
I’m your huckleberry.
?
From “Romeo and Juliete” by William Shakespeare
[i]But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliete is the sun.[/i]
From “Tao Te Ching,” Verse 25 by Lao Tzu. Translated by Stephen Mitchell
[i]There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.[/i]
NOTICE - SIMILIES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
From “The Courier” by Richard Shindell
[i]Crouching in the trench
Clutching bayonettes
A hundred men
All knee-to-chest
A hundred marionettes
I am the string pulled by the sure hand
Animating what was still
I am invisible and faithful
I am a courier[/i]
From “Saturday They’ll All be Back Again” by David Wilcox
[i]Johnny's got the hunger of a high school heart
And a tank full of minimum-wage[/i]
From “Wild Grapes” by Robert Frost
[i]'Drop,' he said,
'I'll catch you in my arms. It isn't far.'
(Stated in lengths of him it might not be.)
'Drop or I'll shake the tree and shake you down.'
Grim silence on my part as I sank lower,
My small wrists stretching till they showed the banjo strings.[/i]
Franz Kafka quote
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone”
I’m your huckleberry.
?
From “Romeo and Juliete” by William Shakespeare
[i]But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliete is the sun.[/i]
From “Tao Te Ching,” Verse 25 by Lao Tzu. Translated by Stephen Mitchell
[i]There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.[/i]
Comments (9)
This acutely reminds me of something else, but I can't think what. I'll get back to you.
It's really hard to find a full quote, as the work is not translated into English yet, but this snippet given by spirit-salamander (who may be a poster here I suppose) captures some of the essence of the metaphor:
"The only objection that can be made to my metaphysics is this: the ultimate goal of the world need not be nothing; it can also be paradise. But the objection is untenable.
First, the pre-worldly deity [God] had the omnipotence to be as he wanted. If he had wanted to be a lot of pure and noble beings, he would have been able to satisfy his wish at once and a process would not have been necessary.
Secondly, it cannot be said that the process had to take place because the Godhead was not a pure Godhead; the process purifies it. For this statement is first destroyed by the omnipotence of God, then by the fact that the essence of God is completely veiled in the human spirit. Who then gives me the right to say that God is an impure God?"
- Philip Mainländer
The idea is that before this plurality of entities we see in the world, there must have been a singularity. This singularity can be called "God". This so called God was a simple entity, he could do whatever he wished. But "he" decided that existence was so bad, that instead of creating a paradise, he choose to kill himself. And he thus the universe and plurality arose. We are the rotting corpse of God, heading to annihilation.
I'm sure I'm missing some details, but I think the main point is given. I don't know why, but the idea of "God" killing himself is haunting, in a certain way...
[i]Behind the wheel, the devil got behind the wheel
Straight downhill
My soul was riding shotgun south of kingdom come
In a long black Coupe Deville
With horns on the grill
The devil's behind the wheel[/i]
Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Your post slipped through my net. I really like the metaphor. Not so much the sentiment.
No problem at all.
Yes, I agree with your statement. It's a very different idea of thinking about God, which is what makes it unique.
But it is extremely dark, maybe the most pessimistic system in the whole of philosophy.
Dark sentiment indeed. Interesting project you have going on here. :)
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race… Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.
[quote=Narrator, The Immortal by Jorge Luis Borges]”This City is so horrible that its mere existence and perdurance, though in the midst of a secret desert, contaminates the past and the future and in some way even jeopardizes the stars. As long as it lasts, no one in the world can be strong or happy. I do not want to describe it; a chaos of heterogeneous words, the body of a tiger or a bull in which teeth, organs and heads monstrously pullulate in mutual conjunction and hatred can (perhaps) be approximate images.”[/quote]
This quote stood out to me palpably.
The narrator is describing a city immortals have built and abandoned, possibly through excessive cycles of time. It is as disorienting as any of Borges metaphorical precursors/parallels like the Library of Babel or the Book of Sand or the memory of Funes, the Zahir, the Aleph, et cetera. These associative elements/themes/motifs echo and mirror the total work metaphorically/fractally.
_____________________
Net of Indra
[quote=Francis H. Cook]Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.[/quote]
Yeah, that's a good one. All bright and cheery and stuff.
It's another wonderful passage, but I wondered why you called it a metaphor. Then I looked up "Net of Indra." Boy, your metaphors are much more intense than mine. Lots of neat images on Google.
[i]The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody's gonna go to school today
She's gonna make them stay at home
And daddy doesn't understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?[/i]
Also makes a philosophical case against the Principle of Sufficient Reason.