Thursday, June 6, 2024

A second thought about metaphors

 Jorge Luis Borges said he studied Old English because he was drawn to the metaphors. The ocean was “the whale’s road.”

A good metaphor persuades. You believe that you understand something in a new way. 

• Source: Borges’ comment comes from Jacob A. Stein, “The Power of Metaphor”; The American Scholar, June 20, 2016.

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Hentoff: ‘Living the Bill of Rights’

 Nat Hentoff’s book  Living the Bill of Rights  is 27 years old, and it needs an update. It seems to be a Rule of the Cosmos that every gene...

  • Lesson 1, with lemons
     I don’t think about schools I should have attended or degrees I should have earned. I do think about teachers I should have had. Kenneth La...
  • After the election
      People who are disappointed by elections ought to be careful about what they say — not out of fear of tyrants but out of concern for sprea...
  • Captain Sands of Deephaven
     Captain Sands, an old seafarer, is “a great hand for keeping things.” His wife doesn’t mind all his clutter — as long as it stays out of th...