Metaphor of the Day Assignment

It's been awhile since I did one of these, so here it is.

Two things are upon us: school and fall. Both are rich fodder for metaphors. Every calendar you see will either have trees turning read, or back to school motifs.

Find a calendar and look at the picture for September. Use a metaphor to describe the picture. (This can be a helpful exercise later when you're picturing a scene in your head for a story.)

Oh, and try to not use the word 'like'. I've resisted for sometime now because it was so comfortable and easy to define metaphors as 'A is like B'. But that's technically a simile. For it to be a metaphor, if you're a purest, it's a little more 'A is B'.

Example: (Highlight the text if you need inspiration.)

Metaphor: As the hungry beast of color ravaged the forest, making it bleed with reds and oranges, the sad trees who were old were devoured early, the best of oncoming winter leaving their white bones to shimmer in the fall sunset.

Simile: Fall was like a hungry beast, ravaging the forest and leaving blood red leaves in its wake.

Plants can have feelings too

Ok, that last post was a little long. Sorry if I lost you in the reading.

A friend of mine also pointed out that I know nothing of IP addresses and they were right. But hopefully the point of the post got through despite that minor mistake. Actually, the point was to be amusing so if it made you smile, great.

MDA:

Come up with a metaphor for a feeling using a kind of plant.

Example:

Her loneliness curled in on her like she was a mimosa plant in a crowded room.

Note: Mimosa plants curl in on themselves when they are touched. They're pretty cool.

Dead Metaphors

Ok, I really like that I get to call them dead metaphors. It just sounds cool.

There are two aspects to a dead metaphor:

1. A dead metaphor can be a metaphor in which the speaker and probably most of the listeners/readers no longer know its meaning.

Example: He dialed her phone number.

This is not a true example, since most of us know what it used to mean to dial a phone. Even though we no longer use dials to call someone, the phrase occassional still pops up. In order for this example to become a dead metaphor, it would take, say, a couple generations down the road when all but a few odd people have forgotten where the phrase comes from.

2. Another type of dead metaphor is a metaphor in which there never was a link from the tenure to the vehicle to begin with. I am reminded of a few lines from the movie Chicken Run.

"Like a fish" doesn't have any obvious connection to being all quiet like. It's a dead metaphor.

MDA:

Choices! Yay!

1. Find a dead metaphor used in every day life.

OR

2. Come up with a metaphor replacement for the rodents' dead metaphor.

So:
We were quiet as......
or
..........like a fish.

(Hey, that's another choice. Cool.)

Example: We were quiet as the calm before a storm.
We slipped in and out of there like a fish.

Implicit Metaphors

An Implicit Metaphor is where the likeness of the two objects is implied but not stated. Basically, it's a metaphor without an explanation.

I usually like to put explanations on my metaphors because it's a great tool for delivering an extra punch or to make a conceit metaphor understandable.

But there are every day expressions that use implicit metaphors. I find I use implicit metaphors without even thinking about it and they are usually made up on the spot without really thinking. This leads me to believe that implicit metaphors are also the more natural metaphors: the tenure and vehicle are very closely related and our minds naturally link them together in certain ways.

If I say "Zip your fly" it is an implicit metaphor because I have not specified what the vehicle "fly" stands for, and yet you will (hopefully) be able to figure it out with no further explanation.

MDA:

Find examples of everyday usages of implicit metaphors or make one up.

Example:
The Bank has many branches.

Big happenings

This weekend I got engaged!

So, for the MDA, maybe a metaphor about love, romance, or couples?

It seems when love is involved in writing, the author usually either treats it with epic-sounding words and fantastic situations, endowing on it the height of human happiness, or he/she treats it like a joke, uses it for humor, etc. Sometimes they do both.

I found this site contains hillarious metaphors written by high school students about love. Though there is some discussion about whether these are actually metaphors or similes, they still made me smile and gave me a little inspiration for writing.

MDA:

Write a metaphor about romance or love. It can either be epic or humorous, or both, or anything in between.

Example:
The two lovers were determined to stick with each other like white on rice.

Btw, thanks to JP and Aranel and an annonymous off-site comment poster (my younger brother) for the comments.

I get to go to a Twin's game tonight with my fiance. Yay!

Fireworks! Explosions! Tomatos!

Today I am like a firework: pretty, pretty hot, and exploding because I can't contain my joyfulness at this wonderful day God has made.

Still working on that continuum of different kinds of metaphors. It's like pulling teeth to find time to work on it and I'm no dentist. But I'll figure it out.

MDA:

Compare an emotion with an element of nature, or vice versa. Classic metaphor formula.

Example:
Her cold pride needed some room to thaw out. It was like a tomato: best ripened in the dark.

Or

The waterfall angrily swept over the cliff.

Question on that last one: Do you consider it to be a metaphor or merely a description? Feel free to vote in the comments!

Metaphor Basics

The Tenure of a metaphor is the object you start with and are trying to describe.

The Vehicle of a metaphor is the object you are comparing the tenure with.


Metaphor of the Day Assignment (MDA):

Use these tenures and vehicles to make a metaphor.

Tenure: Clouds
Vehicle: Bread Crumbs

Example: The clouds were like bread crumbs.

This is rather simplistic, as it does not explain why the clouds are like bread crumbs or what particular aspect of clouds resemble bread crumbs.

There is sometimes a third part to metaphors: the explanation (or the tie). This part comes after the tenure and vehicle and explains how the vehicle is like the tenure. This becomes more important with advanced forms of the metaphor but I’ll post that later.
Example: The clouds were like bread crumbs soaking up the last rays of gravy from the sun.

Like

The other day a friend of the family came up to me and said his daughter had told him I talk differently than other people.
“Oh, really?” I asked.
“Yes. She said you never,...um...use extra words,...like....you know.....like....” And then he smiled. “You don’t use the word ‘like’ except when it’s actually called for.”
I appreciated his daughters observations. Few people would recognize that.

It got me thinking about the word ‘like’ and how people misuse it. I had assumed before that people who use the word ‘like’ in an excessive way are ignorant of the finer points of English. But I soon realized, they are actually using one of the more powerful tools of the English language: the metaphor.

Next time someone uses ‘like’ in a sentence, stop and think what it means. If my friend says, “I, like, totally assumed there was going to be cake.” my friend is not saying, in the technical sense, that she actually assumed there was going to be cake. She’s saying her actions of thinking were very close to assuming there was going to be cake, but never quite made it there.
Sometimes when I come across a metaphor in literature or poetry, I wish I could ask the writer what they meant and connect the dots a little more for me. So next time someone says ‘like’ in a sentence, catch them off balance and ask “What do you mean? How is your thinking like assuming there would be cake and how is it not like?”

Note: This will drive you insane.

Since this is my first post, I won’t bother with the metaphor of the day assignment because I first want to explain what a metaphor is and how to use it. I also want to detail instructions for the MDA and am not sure what they will be yet.