The perfect metaphor is not that which insists upon a new way of seeing things. It is one that reveals a connection which was always there but never noticed. And having revealed, quietly recedes into the background, never drawing attention to itself but the connection.
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- musafir
- "A man is the history of his breaths and thoughts, acts, atoms and wounds, love, indifference, and dislike; also of his race and nation, the soil that fed him and his forebears, the stones and sands of his familiar places, long-silenced battles and struggles of conscience, of the smiles of girls and the slow utterance of old women, of accidents and the gradual action of inexorable law, of all this and something else too, a single flame which in every way obeys the laws that pertain to Fire itself, and yet is lit and put out from one moment to the next, and can never be relumed in the whole waste of time to come." Possession by A.S. Byatt
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4 comments:
Agreer with the first part.
But not completely with the last sentence.Why should it disappear into the backdrop? Is it because its done its job? What if it is so beautiful, that it merits some attention as well?
Or is it because by stepping back, the metaphor becomes perfect, and hence gets notice? Does'nt it sound ironical?
I guess my way of looking at a metaphor is to see it as a means and not an end. Writing, in my opinion, should never strive to attract attention to itself. The theme/ topic is sacred. The writing comes next. One wouldn't want anything to draw attention away from what one's writing about, something which would say "look at me; am I not clever/ beautiful etc?".
Of course, as a reader sometimes one pays attention to the writing to analyse/ admire the way something's written. As a writer, one can't stop such microscopic attention. One can only hope that one's "writing" remains "invisible".
that would depend on what you are writing for...
Theme, topic is sacred..the metaphor should not disturb it. But doesnt mean it should remain in the backdrop.
Sometimes, the metaphor could be the golden snitch of the whole peice ! (sorry for using this one.. fresh from HP)
It depends on how you define "background" :) ... yes, sometimes the metaphor could be the USP of a piece, but that, for me, is just cleverness/ gimmickry; I don't attach a lot of value to such pieces.
That said, have you read this - http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1736.html ... it's supposed to be a triple metaphor.
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