Character Description
Metaphorical imagery is great for character description. Just a few universally recognized comparisons and—boom—an instant image in the mind of the reader. Except that Gray is no ordinary writer and often his character-based metaphor requires effort. On the other hand, he also recognizes the power of simplicity when needed:
“She shone before me like rainbow’s end, but solid, tall, elegant, leaning on Baxter’s arm and wistfully smiling.”
True, most people have never actually seen the end of the rainbow, but the imagination fills in that gap.
Setting (and Character)
Metaphor is also handy for describing setting. In this particular case, however, Gray’s utilization is actually used as much for delineating character as for conveying certain stereotypes about place:
“You grew up on a farm! Was your dad a frugal swain tending his flocks on the Grampian hills or a ploughman homeward plodding his weary way?”
Dialogue
Gray is not a best-selling writer likely to show up at your local Barnes and Noble. He is a serious author. The kind of novelist who gets routinely nominated for awards you’ve never heard of. As a result, his characters are not given to speaking in the kind of semi-literate litany of profanity as all-purpose synonyms for everything. The F-word appears but twice. And that very popular four-letter word that is supposed to signify feces, but is now pretty substituted for anything appears just once. But not in the formulation with which most readers are familiar:
“Yes, you did that for me. Why? I am a stinking midden, a reeking dungheap, a quintessence of shit. You are Venus, Magdalene, Minerva and Our Lady of Sorrows rolled into one—how can you bear to touch me?”
Sure, very few people in real life actually do talk like that, but here’s a secret: most people in real life don’t actually talk like gangsters in a Scorsese flick despite what movies about people living normal lives may tell you. Besides, dialogue rich in metaphorical overstatement like this can be fun to do...like in Coen Brothers movie.
The Enthusiastic Delusional Malthusiast
One particularly delusional character—Mr. Astley—falls victim to the misguided economics of Thomas Malthus. Another tries to help him back onto the road of clear thinking with a metaphor for insanity so familiar anyone can get it…yet still fails:
“I thought Mr. Malthus was a Church of England clergyman with bats in his belfry about expanding populations.”
The Double Standard
The double standard is itself for a metaphorical phrase, but General Blessington takes it on with a robust quality that makes it almost seem less misogynistic and patriarchal. Almost.
“Even pagan philosophers knew that men are energetic planters and good women are peaceful fields.”
