Dealing with abstractions? Try metaphors.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I’m not a big fan of abstraction in writing. (Here’s something I wrote about abstract language a couple of months ago.) But what do you do when you have to write about an abstraction?
The same thing that writers and poets have done for millennia: use a metaphor.
Metaphors, and the closely related rhetorical devices, simile and metonymy, are ways to describe a thing by making a direct comparison to another thing. Saying someone has “muscles of steel” is a metaphor: The person does not literally have muscle tissue made of steel, but the speaker is trying to convey the idea of strength by comparing them to a known strong material.
Metaphors are wonderful tools to use when you have to talk about abstractions. For example, Thomas Jefferson wanted to make a point about needing to be unyielding when it came to matters of principle, but to not be so rigid in other matters, so he used the metaphors of water and rock to do so: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” We’re all familiar with what it looks like to move with a river’s current, and how immovable a large rock is, thus we can almost immediately grasp the abstract ideas he’s trying to convey.
Don’t be afraid to try coining your own new metaphors, they’re all around us. This morning, as I was considering getting a pocket knife for my son, I started thinking about how teaching a boy to use a knife is a metaphor for teaching him how to be a man. You must carefully control the knife’s blade; use it carelessly, and you can injure yourself or those around you. In the same way, as a boy grows to manhood, he has to learn to control himself; otherwise, he will harm himself and those around him.
What else could a pocket knife be a metaphor for?
Roy Jacobsen
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Reader Comments (5)
Excellent post! Got here through Chris Brogan's "Rockstars".
Nice blog - I will be reading more!
Marti,
Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to join in the comments.
Is it too snarky of me to point out that the Jefferson example is a simile, not a metaphor?
Jeremiah,
Not at all snarky. But Jefferson is using both simile and metaphor (which are very close kin), isn't he? The metaphor is "swim with the current," implying that style is a river you can swim in; the simile is "stand like a rock."
I'll concede the point ;-) And yes, simile and metaphor are basically kissin' cousins.