I suspect we’re not aware of how often we use metaphors to explain something through the lens of something else. Let me provide a few examples.
In Australia, metaphors are generously sprinkled throughout our language. For example,
A dog’s breakfast
meaning a messy or complicated situation, while being
Mad as a cut snake
describes someone who is really angry.
Metaphors help us to think and see and feel and experience a situation through another sensory lens. (And sometimes to mix humour into an explanation).
Tom Albrighton talks about metaphors as bridges from the close and familiar to the distant and strange, explaining the unknown in terms of the known. He adds that metaphors are valuable tools in business, particularly when people need to communicate complex and dry ideas. By their very nature they are imperfect. Like spotlights, they illuminate some things while leaving others in the dark. This means they sometimes outlive their usefulness.
Sophie Playle beseeches writers to use metaphors as they surprise the brain. They can simultaneously make writing delightfully succinct while concentrating meaning. I like how she proposes that you pair two unexpected images to interrupt your reader’s expected train of thought. This is similar to the process used in innovation of combining two products to create something entirely new and unexpected such as the wine press and coin punch to make the printing press or more recently a winter coat that doubles as a sleeping bag.
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