We will remain eternally grateful to those readers, who at various times, have expressed their praise and appreciation of our recurrent use of metaphor. The latter linguistic is the lifeblood of the need for expression and expressive exactitude. Such a creative category of literary analogous expression is essential to the intended impact and basic aesthetics of communication, particularly referable to the arts of poetry and literature. It is also, by the dynamics of its function as a comparative adjectival reference, beneficially utilitarian to prosaic communication by serving as a contemplative and emphatic portrayal of the nuanced intention of the author or poet.
In poetry, where the definitional standard prescribes economy of speech and use of word imagery, one might choose to express an aesthetic description of a beautiful woman, metaphorically, as a “rosebud in a clump of newly fallen snow.” In prose, a similar emphatic portrayal of the beauty of the subject may, for example, be classically, expressed as “the face that launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Illium.” (Christopher Marlow, “Dr. Faustus”). The universal goal of such a literary toolbox is precision in the degree of intended expression by replicative and referential abstraction of the precise degree of intended expression.
To express our recognition of the existence of the contemporary existential threat to our democracy, we have found useful the utilitarian, ubiquitous phenomenon of the thematic use of metaphor. Thus, our unlimited cornucopia of negative, adjectival metaphors have been signified by our employment of contextual, metaphorical references as: “harvest moon,” to signify the predictable future disputes concerning territory and the proprietary enrichment of Luna resources, “Cosmic Danger,” to adequately communicate the annihilative potential to democracy by the hapless election of Donald Trump to a second term, “Mad Hatter” reasoning when referring to dysfunctional or dystopic thought, “Lemmings,” referencing witless MAGA adherents who, unthinkingly, would, in common with their political adversaries, suffer the loss of their present rights if democracy were supplanted by an autocracy, “Miasma” or “Polluting Mist,” to meteorologically refer to the etiology of the unhealthy reversal of traditional American thought, “Chamberlain-style appeasement” to express frustration with policies of inaction or toleration of unconstitutional or unjust policies, such as the egregious violations of the constitutions’ Establishment Clause, “Puppeteer,” to signify Donald Trump’s control over the “hordes” of his cultish MAGA acolytes, “Orange Hazmat,” to describe the lethal pollution despoiling the American way of life and ethical predilections, due to the influence of Donald Trump, and “Determinative Etiology,” to identify the advent and continuing sources of toxic and false ideation.
We have as well, used the literary device of metaphor to meaningfully and adequately express our approval and favorable recognition of matters perceived as positive or ultimately salubrious to the traditional nature and endurance of our unique and precious Democratic Republic. For example, we have employed such positive, metaphoric language as, “Mainstream,” to describe the traditional, freedom, and justice-loving American citizen, “Rock-Ribbed,” or “Foundational,” to describe the citizenry who are ardently supportive of the traditional and patriotic, American way of life, “Oasis,” to pictorially describe situational relief or convenient instances of constitutional compliance and moments of unified accord, “ American Ship of State,” and “Body Politic,” to respectively describe the nature and quality of the temporal voyage of the Democratic Republic and its contemporary state of health, “Funhouse Mirror,” to depict the bizarre exerciser of distorted reason, “Electrical Switch,” to denote reflexive (“Pavlovian”) response, Societal Evolution,” to signify humanistic advancement and “Vestigial Interpretation,” to reflect our views regarding the outmoded and currently defective exercise of reason.
Functionally, the ubiquitous employment of metaphor compensates for the absence of the virtues of in-person communication, naturally exemplified by nuanced facial expression, tone, and expressive gestures. [N.B. The latter invaluable communicative elements are absent in facile, and inadequate, “smart-phone” communication].
Both instances of communication, viz., mundane and aesthetic, benefit from the select use of metaphor, which may wisely and appropriately enable the author to express his exact intention, supplementing the situational ex-parte expression of the written word. The expressive facility, as well, vitally serves as a needed avenue of communication and a much-desired release valve, in times such as the extant moment, empirically, rife with unsettling political and moral insecurity.
*Thanks to (the “incomparable”) Aaron Coplin for the (amended) use of his symphonic name, “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
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