The Great Metaphor Thread

[Danik 2016]

@ bounty I just intended to set on peppermint!

@Sancho- the problem about these metaphors is that they occur more easily in Portuguese for me but go nuts when I try to translate them.

One beautiful current example: "passar o pano para alguém". Literally it means "wipe (the room) with a damp cloth for someone."
Methaphorically it is used to express the attenuation excuse or the covering up of a fault, a bad action or even a crime, as wiping the floor is considered a superficial and inadequate way of cleaning a room.In Brazilian politics there is always a lot of floor wiping going on.

[Sancho]

Good one, Danik. I like hearing that sort of thing from another language/culture. It sounds similar to what we do when we “whitewash” something. We’ll take an event that is not necessarily nefarious, but certainly is not virtuous either, and whitewash all the dirty little details out of it. School children here tend to learn a whitewashed version of American history. Then when they’re older if they decide to dig a little deeper or take a college-level course, their reaction frequently is — WTF!? That is not what I learned in school!

A similar expression which is usually used in political circles is to “spin” something. Someone trying to push a policy or opinion will put a “spin” on it by only listing the things in the “pro” column and leave out the things in the “cons” column. I think it’s like putting a spin on a tennis ball, which will make the ball bounce a certain direction.

******
Peppermint Patties for me!

[Sancho]

I came across this simile in the book I’m currently reading, The Hunter by Tana French. I thought it was artful.

Trey (Teresa) is a boyish girl about 15 years old, poor, and somewhat feral. She has befriended Cal who is a retired policeman. Brendan is (was?) her older brother who disappeared some time ago:

Six months before Trey met Cal, Brendan walked out of the house one afternoon and never came back. Trey doesn’t think about those six months, but they’re layered into her like a burn ring inside a tree.

Beautiful

[Danik 2016]

Beautiful indeed, Sancho!

[Sancho]

I like this metaphor from my current read, The Moor’s Account:

He warned me that trade would open the door to greed and greed was an inconsiderate guest; it would bring its evil relations with it.

The context is this: a young man is speaking with his father about his future. The father wants him to be a lawyer, and if not a lawyer, a carpenter. The father reasons both are honorable professions. One is a work of the mind and the other a work of the hands. But the son wants to be a merchant. He likes the rough-and-tumble world of the market in their town — Azemmur, Morocco.

[Sancho]

A most excellent Grateful Dead simile:

I spent three years on the road with show dogs, handlers, judges, and other dog people who roam the country like Deadheads with hair spray.

Found today in a story in The Atlantic by Tommy Tomlinson:

Why a Dog’s Death Hits So Hard
I loved my mom more than my dog. So why did I cry for him but not for her?

RIP Jerry Garcia

[WICKES]

Do similie's count? P. G. Wodehouse describes his uncle as looking "like a pterodactyl with a secret sorrow," and describes Jeeves removing his purple socks from the drawer "as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of the salad."


I've always loved Ted Hughes' description of a motionless fish on a hot day: The carp is in its depth/Like a planet in its heaven.

[Sancho]

Haha! I like ‘em all. And that second one kinda has a metaphor within a simile, eh? I mean the vegetarian is fishing the caterpillar out of the salad.

And as far as similes on the metaphor thread, I’m gonna make like Kool-Aid Man, bust through this wall, and say — Oh Yeah!

Besides this thread is a democracy and —

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all literary devices are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are …

Ah well, the correlation with the U.S. Declaration of Independence falls apart there, but you-all get the picture, yeah?

Hey, speaking of politics, I heard a good simile on a podcast the other day — Bill Maher’s Club Random. Bill was chatting with Sheryl Crow about all sorts of things, music mostly, and the subject of Kid Rock came up. Sheryl and Kid Rock are polar opposites politically, but they are close friends and have worked together artistically. Anyway a couple of years ago Kid Rock made a video that went viral where he blows away several cases of Bud Light with an automatic rifle. Evidently he did this because Bud Light made a TV ad with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender-rights activist.

So Bill’s comment was something like — Yeah, Kid Rock is like my dog. He’ll bark at nothing.

https://youtu.be/vpK0ZVh-PGU?si=F3rRQQbLWQ2dJjHL