Utilizing Metaphors

We use metaphors constantly in our language to enliven discourse, improve understanding, and sadly sometimes for less noble reasons.

What I read: “Metaphors make the world” by Benjamin Santos Genta. Published February 8, 2024.

We use metaphors all the time. Imagine how often you hear something like one of these phrases used in daily discourse.

We might say “I could eat a horse” rather than say I’m very hungry.

We might say “I was a million miles away” rather than say our mind’s focus wasn’t in the moment.

We might say someone is “splitting hairs” rather than that they’re focused too much on insignificant details.

Metaphors abound in our daily conversations, media, advertising, and literature. So, what is a metaphor? Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it this way.

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)

broadly : figurative language

(Source)

Why do we use metaphors?

Metaphors can elevate dull everyday language and make it come to life. They can be used as a device to make the subject you’re discussing or writing about more relatable to the listener or reader. They can bolster speech and writing with more robust and vivid imagery that transcends the literal meanings of words. They allow us to make a comparison that will help the listener or reader better understand a statement.

Being a lifelong word person, the metaphorical device has long been of interest to me. They not only make language more interesting, but they can also improve understanding at the same time. Using metaphors properly can be a superpower. Listen to any of the great speeches delivered by notable thought leaders and you’ll often hear metaphors sprinkled throughout because they reinforce understanding and dig deep into an emotional connection.

Benjamin Santos Genta’s article points out from the start that the improper or overuse of metaphors can be problematic.

When used properly, metaphors enhance speech. But correctly dosing the metaphorical spice in the dish of language is no easy task. They ‘must not be far-fetched, or they will be difficult to grasp, nor obvious, or they will have no effect’, as Aristotle already noted nearly 2,500 years ago. For this reason, artists – those skilled enhancers of experience – are generally thought to be the expert users of metaphors, poets and writers in particular.

Unfortunately, as Genta notes, artists have often been relegated to second-class status and therefore the tools they use for their art such as metaphors can suffer the same fate. Some ancient philosophers balked at the use of metaphors because they considered them imprecise.

Eventually the denigration of metaphors gave way to them being considered an integral part of the essential infrastructure of our conceptual systems with some people asserting that most such systems are metaphorical in nature. For example, we often talk of abstract concepts like ideas much as we do literal, concrete concepts.

We might say of an interesting idea that ‘it is fruitful’, that someone ‘planted the seed’ of an idea in our heads, and that a bad idea has ‘died on the vine’.

Scattered throughout our lives is the use of metaphors to better understand the world in which we live. Here’s an example I used the other day.

A friend was asking me about my personal erotic life which tends toward the rather adventurous and often kinky, all quite consensually of course. The person I was speaking to didn’t understand the concept of setting up an adventurous erotic play scenario like I was describing. It just wasn’t sinking in, until I said this.

“An enjoyable erotic play session is like a dance in which the dancers move beautifully to the inner erotic music dialogue they share to produce a work of mutual fulfilling creative art.”

Not my best crafting of words, but it worked. They got it. They understood what I was saying quickly after I had tried to describe it other ways without much success. Genta uses a similar dance metaphor to describe an argument.

This highlights the role of metaphors in creating reality rather than simply helping to represent it.

What Genta’s article drives home is that we not only use metaphors often, but they are deeply embedded into how we think and communicate. He offers another example of how we use metaphors when describing romance in our lives.

Then Genta suggests something I’d never thought of before quite like he articulates. Different metaphors can alter decisions even when those decisions take place within the same context. Genta mentions a study in which the metaphorical phrase used to introduce a study on the rising crime rate in a city influenced how they believed the crime mentioned should be addressed. The solutions they posed aligned with the metaphorical language used.

Such metaphorically-induced biases can skew decisions about all kinds of things like finances, climate change, or attitudes toward police.

The underpinnings of science has metaphorical roots too. Same for politics. One only has to witness modern propaganda and gaslighting emanating from certain political forces in our own country and abroad to see how metaphors are used to frighten and sway people ready to respond to the emotional spark ignited by a metaphor when plain language would not.

It should be clear that the power a choice of metaphor(s) has in structuring our thoughts makes the tool vulnerable to be hijacked by grifters and politicians to advance their own agenda.

Think of how Donald Trump recently invoked the word “vermin” to describe his political opponents who threaten his autocratic leanings. That vermin metaphorical phrase echoes language used by Hitler. When Trump also said immigration is “poisoning the blood” of our country, he again echoed language used by Hitler. If that concerns you, good. Then vote in November to make sure we don’t end up with a 1930s Germany situation in our own country.

Read Genta’s excellent article. I could continue to comment on it here, but reading it will provide nuance and depth it would take me too many words to describe here in a short post. Just know that metaphors are part of everyday life and culture and commonly used in the language we speak and write. Since this is the case, we should exert some effort to continually explore different metaphors to determine which produce the best effect and most clear understanding.

Genta concludes this way.

A collective effort to notice and change the metaphors we use has enormous potential to reduce individual and societal harm.

Now I’m going to push myself away from the laptop to go bond with my regular Thursday lunchtime close friends who fit me like a comfortable glove. Yes, I contorted that sentence to utilize a metaphor although perhaps not a great one.

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