Swiftly Tilting Planet Metaphors and Similes

Swiftly Tilting Planet Metaphors and Similes

Sensory Stuff

Sometimes metaphor is used for the purpose of quick delineation of a sensory perception of a character. One character may refer to another in a way that is doubly descriptive: giving a sense of both the person being described and the one doing it. Such is the case here in which one person is succinctly delineating what other smells like:

"Like a dandruffy woodchuck."

The Vagaries of Remembrance

Trying to remember something that is on the tip of your brain, so to speak, can be a real pain in the neck. If only the mind were like a phonograph where the needle has gotten stuck and you could dislodge the obstruction with a smack upside the head:

“And Vespugia is part of Patagonia. And there was a connection that was lost and had to be found, but what was it? I keep almost remembering, and then it's as if someone slams a door on my memory."

Getting to Be Kind of Yoda-ish

The metaphors at one point almost begin to veer into Yoda territory. Herbal tea is served with the intent of ceasing a rising anger. But it is not anger that needs soothing:

"Anger is not bitterness. Bitterness can go on eating at a man's heart and mind forever. Anger spends itself in its own time."

Physical Description

Metaphor and simile are robustly engaged to serve the purpose of character description from a physical perspective. Rather than relying upon a character to describe another character, this is the simple type of a narrator conveying expository information:

“A boy sat on an outcropping of rock, whittling a spear with a sharp stone. He was tanned and lean, with shining hair the color of a blackbird's wing, and dark eyes which sparkled like the water of the lake.”

Darkness

Darkness, always darkness. Don’t even look for darkness as a metaphorical image, it will find you. It is in almost literally in every work of fiction (and increasingly omnipresent in non-fiction) since the turn of the 20th century. Darkness is the definitive metaphor of the modern age, an inescapable aspect of the literature of our time:

“Charles Wallace felt weighed down by darkness and pain.”

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