“Writing is the window to the mind.”
Ah, metaphors! They are the primary construction material of any writer. Most people do not realize how frequently metaphors are used. Before reading excerpts of Lakoff and Johnson’s discussions of metaphors, I myself did not realize how frequently we use metaphors and how many different forms they take.
When I say that “writing is the window to the mind,” I communicate to my reader that writing enables the viewer to access the imagination and thought processes of the writer. We all understand that there is no literal window to the mind but that writing gives an author transparency to share their ideas with others.
To me, a metaphor has always been a direct reference to the item we are speaking metaphorically about, like “love is the key that opens the heart.” Here, there is a direct reference to a key opening something, so that the metaphor being used is explicitly stated. However, a metaphor can be even a single word, like saying rain “poured” from the sky. The sky was not literally pouring out rain, like a pitcher pours out water, but the metaphor is still there in that single word. And although a pitcher of water was never mentioned in the metaphor, we all still picture a heavy, steady stream of water that would come from a pitcher and can therefore relate to what the writer is trying to say.
Lakoff and Johnson introduced me to Michael Reddy’s “conduit metaphor” that he uses to explain the concept of a metaphor. How ironic, using a metaphor to teach someone what a metaphor is. With the conduit metaphor, Reddy explains that “the speaker [writer] puts ideas (objects) into words (containers) and sends them (along a conduit) to a hearer who takes the ideas/objects out of the word/containers” (Lakoff and Johnson, 10).
From now on, the name “word containers” will forever be lodged in my memory. That is truly what words are . . . the containers for a concept or idea that someone is trying to communicate to someone else.
Without metaphors, we would be unable to describe what our imagination sees in a way that is detailed enough to capture the attention of thousands of different people. Without metaphors, no one else’s imagination would get swept away along with mine on a wild adventure of the mind (see, there it is again). I cringe at the thought of what writing would be like without the amazing tool of metaphors.
References: Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 3-13.
Clarity with Clara 