Blog 1

Who knew metaphors could be so incorporated in the world around us? Michael Erard explains the ways in which society understands a metaphor, and how two opposite objects/ideas can relate, such as “the paintbrush and pump”. As I was going through this text, there were a couple quotes that really stuck out to me. They made me sit and think a little more about the importance of the text I was reading, along with what the author, Erard, wanted his readers to comprehend.

One quote that really stuck out to me was how metaphors, “generated new perceptions, explanations, and inventions” which Erard quoted from US philosopher Schon. I know what you may be thinking, that’s the whole point of a metaphor! In all honesty, I’ve never really took them into consideration. How they constantly defy the odds of objects, and “miscategorize the thing you are trying to explain” as Erard says. For example, the well known metaphor “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get” by the infamous Forrest Gump. Life and a box of chocolates, two completely different things. However, the metaphor, to me at least, makes complete sense. When you are given a box of chocolates, there are a variety of options for you to choose, and you often blindly choose one. As with life, you never know what is going to happen. We blindly walk through our days, with both big and small options that we are always choosing. What will we eat? What will happen tomorrow? How will I do on this test? Will I get accepted into this college/job? We really never know. With that being said, this metaphor has already created this new perception in my brain as to how our life works. Despite there being two different objects compared to each other, I feel as though I understand everything the author has tried explaining to me.

Later on in the text, Erard describes how him and his fellow colleagues tested a set of metaphors on pedestrians walking by on the street. To briefly summarize their experiment, they started with asking what skills are, then after receiving very few thoughts on what a skill is, gave them a metaphor combing skills and ropes, which then resulted in lengthy explanations by the passer-byres who were unsure how to answer at first. He describes this, “as if this new idea, which we gave to them, had taken them by the hand”. I completely agree with what Erard is explaining to us here, mostly because as I was reading this I acted as if I was one of the pedestrians walking by. When asked to explain skills, I could mumble a bunch of words to you in my best efforts to sound educated. However, if I was given an explanation such as “skills are like ropes, woven out of many components braided together” I could then go on and on about how a skill is created, what they are, and how they apply to everyday life. The metaphor almost guided me, as well as the other pedestrians, to a better way of explaining an easy word which we already knew, but just not how to explain it.