last paper

After doing two papers in this class I struggle to get a creative topic, but I was thinking the other day about metaphors and basketball. I was sitting here in the hotel room since we are on the road for basketball, and I was like mmm....wonder if I could do metaphors dealing with basketball for my last paper. For example, we will say "set a pick to the hole" or "Go to the glass". If you took that literally we would have people picking in a hole and people running after class. In basketball its means to set a screen to get your player open and go get the rebound. There are numerous metaphors used in this sport, so hopefully it would work out. Any one have any ideas to help describe or explain a metaphor?

old---dead metaphors

After reading te article by Lewis, I was very confused on what he was trying to say that had to deal with metaphors. You have to sit and read and then reread to actually understand what Lewis is trying to describe in his writing. When I hear about old and dead metaphors, I think of people refering to death when trying to describe everyday life actions that they partake in. For instance, i have ankle problems, so when my friends ask me how my injury is, I always answer, "I would rather be dead." My ankle always hurts and I know that I will not die from my injury of course but I want my friends to be able to relate to how much pain I am in. When I think of old metaphors, I think of metaphors that have been around forever and the ones that my dad still uses until this day. Such as, "Its as cold as a well diggers butt out here." This metaphor relates to how cold it is outside to how cold a well diggers butt can get when they are working. Older metaphors are hard to comprehend and understand to their full degree the first time that you hear them because we are not accustom to them. However, once you hear them over and over again, you will usually find yourself to be using them in your everyday language without realizing it.

blog 5: I know this reading is hard...some attempts to clarify

Among other things, Lewis is interested in what happens when metaphor progresses to a state of death or fossilization. These terms—metaphors, actually—describe a state of being that encompasses the relationship between language and thought. To talk about language as dead or fossilized would seem to make a pretty strong case for language as once being alive. Fossilization refers to statis, a historical remnant, evidence of a living thing. What’s made possible by thinking of language as alive? What’s deflected?

He talks about the magistral, or enlightening, function of metaphor in the context of teaching and explaining. When it’s no longer magistral, though, he says that we use metaphor unconsciously, forgetting the original context through which we learned the metaphor (i.e., the “truth” it originally helped to illuminate for us) because we eventually know more about a given topic. Or, sometimes we forget that the metaphor is a metaphor, which is a kind of ignorance, or an end of thinking about our own thinking.

He compares the construction and use of metaphor to the teaching situation, calling the use of metaphors as tools a common tactic of “masters,” or teachers, who reduce a concept or idea to a metaphor in hopes of better explaining it. The student, or the “pupil,” is then at the “mercy of the metaphor,” as puts it. In other words, their understanding of the content is held hostage to a particular way of seeing presented through the metaphor. Metaphors, he explains, can limit thinking, can blind us to certain things when we depend too much on their explanatory power.

Lewis suggests that freedom from metaphor is really freedom to choose between metaphors; in other words, there’s no such thing as language or thought without metaphor: “It is abundantly clear that the freedom from a given metaphor which we admittedly enjoy in some cases is often only a freedom to choose between that metaphors and others” (305). In the end, he says that creating new metaphors requires imagination—no big surprise there—but he’s cautious about saying that artists (or poets, more specifically) are the only ones capable of generating imaginative metaphors.

Some metaphors of pop culture that seem driven by an imaginative impulse to explain the world differently, in renewed language and imagery, might include the following:

** the creation of “emoticons,” or text-based symbols used in online environments to stand for emotions

** Eminem’s “Slim Shady” persona as a metaphor for a threatening thug (“You don’t wanna mess with Shady—Why?—Cause Shady will f**cking kill you”)

** the Matrix (the movie) as a metaphor for blurred realities

Many more, but time is limited and your drafts are waiting….See you tomorrow!

some thoughts

Tired of thinking about metaphors!? Sandra, I fear you speak for many in class when you ask this leading question...and yet you all need metaphors to help you communicate and comprehend. To use language is to use metaphor.

But, the practical reality is that you must get your papers written. On that note, I would suggest some of the following approaches (a few of which came up in our discussion on Thursday):

--think small: a word, a concept, a phrase. Kevin talked about writing a paper on the concept of an "American"; Jeff talked about writing on home/house; Sandra wrote a largely successful paper on "retirement." These are all good ideas that give you something concrete and contained to work with rather than focusing on general impressions that are hard to analyze.

--pay attention to the function of each paragraph in your paper: topic sentences should help guide and direct each paragraph and should be formulated around an analytical point. As we talked about in class, description is necessary but only to the extent that it is offered within the context of your analysis. In other words, make clear to your reader WHY you are describing Cincinnati's history, or your friends' love of Queer as Folk, or your pet's baby-like qualities. What's the point of describing these things? How is doing so going to add up to a larger point that you want to make?

--come talk with me about your paper: we'll brainstorm and test ideas.

--think about using a discrete text for the basis of your analysis: if you're interested in talking about metaphors of romantic love, for instance, use your favorite romance novel as part of the basis for your analysis; if you're interested in metaphors of loss in country music songs, use the lyrics as a guide for you analysis, etc. And, then, get to that next step: what do metaphors of loss in country songs tell us about perspective, hope, or belief in love in that culture? What counts as a legitimate or meaningful relationship to loss?

All for now....best to bring specific questions about your topic to class on Tuesday...we can spend time thinking together.

Laura

Paper

After writing the first metaphor paper in this class, I was a little frustrated. I didn't like my topic, but I really didn't have much time to change it. For the second paper i thought about many topics, but I ended up with the topic of religion and metaphors. I knew there were a lot of metaphors used in religion or even in the Bible, but I had a hard time to narrowing the topic down. Since we have to analyze these papers, I am having a hard time to get to why these are metaphors and what do they mean and why do they matter to us. The process is a lot harder than I thought. After sitting in class on Tuesday, some topics of other papers were interesting. I guess I'm not that creative, because I havent thought of anything like that! I did think about illnesses as metaphors since we have been reading a lot lately about death and illnesses, but I couldnt set my mind to any specific topic. Hopefully this paper will be easier and I will get the hang of how to analyze and organize my paper.

Blog 3

The past few readings we have done in class have been about death or a disease that can lead to death. These past few years have been hard for me because my mother passed away, then it was my grandpa (dad's dad) and then my grandma (mom's side) just passed away a week ago. It just seems to never end. My mother had breast cancer which lead to cancer of the liver. When i read Gross's article, "Cancer Becomes Me" it just made me think of my mom. Gross obviosuly knew she had cancer, but she didn't dwell on it. She found some humor in her situation. Most people it would be hard to be so uplifting, but my mom found a away just like Gross did. She had a great attitude and was joking self any chance she could be. She had her days where the cancer took control, but she fought hard. I think it is a little weird to me that we have been reading these stories about death or diseases because of what just happened with my grandma passing away. It seems like it was meant to be. We all will have ostacles in life with death or illnesses, but we have to overcome them. After going through what I have the past few years it has made me a stronger person and I understand a lot more of what people go through or how people feel.

Blog #3