General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do they still teach the difference between simile and metaphor? I ask because... [View all]dawg day
(7,947 posts)The important thing is to get that we can use words and images in ways that aren't literal-- metaphors, similes, analogies, parables, tropes, memes, symbols, motifs, themes, figures of speech. Fiction itself is sort of a huge extended metaphor of reality. That's an important cognitive concept, that something can stand for something else, that reality and truth can be expressed in creative ways.
But yes, the idea that using "like" makes a simile so much different from metaphor is pretty lame.
I kind of enjoy finding "anachronistic" metaphors that everyone uses and no one knows what it once meant literally, like "part and parcel" and "layman's view", "kicking the bucket" (and its newer corollary, "the bucket list" .
I can see "cursive" writing and "penmanship" in the future being taught almost as an art form. Calligraphy classes?