Hyperbolic Metaphor Drives Tourists Away From London

Before assessing the damage done, we'll begin by defining the metaphor: n. "To transfer, to carry. A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive term is transferred to some object different from but analogous to that which is properly applicable. Oxford English Dictionary.

Translation: A metaphor is a comparison, not actual, of one thing to another. Simply, you are saying that the first thing is the second thing. A successful metaphor carries new meaning to the first thing. Again, the thing compared puts the original in a new light, which may be dramatic, ironic, humorous...quite often in a rhetorical way. If you accomplish the task successfully, the person experiencing your metaphor gains a "fresh" view of the first thing--a great outcome in any attempt to communicate a thought.

There are other figures of speech related to metaphors used to identify the comparisons we make in order to "carry" meaning more powerfully, humorously, etc. We've already pointed out "mediocre" metaphors as well as "silly" similes--our own, nonacademic approach. Click here for a more academic look at other figures of speech related to metaphor such as synecdoche, metonymy, and still other figures of speech.

Back to our approach. A mediocre metaphor is one which has descended into the realm of cliché: a word or phrase that has become overly familiar or commonplace; a hackneyed or trite word or phrase. H. W. Fowler referred to these as "dead" metaphors, or "unsustained" metaphors.

Just as unacceptable is the "hyperbolic" metaphor, often a form of cliché. Hyperbole: "Excessive, extravagant exaggeration." Merriam Webster Dictionary. Fowler called these "self-conscious" or "overdone" metaphors. A recent travel article in the Los Angeles Times by Jane Engle offers a good example of a hyperbolic"or overdone metaphor.

In the metaphor, Engle, attempting humor, nevertheless poses you and me, the reader, as tourists who will identify with young Oliver Twist, the abused young boy of the streets in Charles Dickens' famous novel Oliver Twist, "(We) may feel as destitute as the young Oliver Twist." Furthermore, "(We) won't need Fagin's band of pickpockets to empty (our) wallets" because London's hoteliers, restaurateurs, and their like are well disposed to pull off the heist themselves. "Fagin" was the the villainous old man who trained kids to be pickpockets and pilferers in tough, 19th century London, a town which experienced outbreaks of Cholera because of drinking water tainted with sewage from the Thames River.

(Note: Sir Joseph Bazalgette, acting as the Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, eventually solved the problem.)

Metaphors should be more carefully used. Ms. Engle, herself, offers the real culprit for London's high prices in her piece when she is thinking more of market economics than of literature. It is an exchange rate explanation, hardly Dickensian:

"For their predicament, tourists can mostly blame the woeful U.S. dollar, which, after sliding 14% in two years, was recently worth half a British pound. Note: when the market closed today, 8 Jan 2008, the dollar was valued at .0568 to the pound. This is an uncomfortable exchange rate for anyone using dollars, but hardly a condition that resembles being robbed by merciless London merchants.

We therefore issue Ms. Engle a grammar ticket for "excessive exaggeration" in the form of a metaphor.

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Bill Belichick a Captain Ahab, Yes; Vengeful, No

In a recent piece about coach Bill Belichick of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills, Associated Press writer Jim Litke paints in fairly true colors a description of the despot-like football man. However, when he says of him: "(Belichick) could have taught Captain Ahab a thing or two about revenge," Litke's metaphor goes off course.

In Moby Dick, or The White Whale, by Herman Melville, Captain Ahab hunts the whale in a "dehumanizing" way that "sacrifices his crew." Ahab is not a man to put on false appearances. On the other hand, Belichick dissembles when speaking about his team to the press, and according to Roger Goodell, franchise commissioner of the league in which the Buffalo Bills play, Belichick "represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field." Ahab is "monomaniacal" in his "search for truth" as he hunts the whale. Belichick is also obsessively single-minded in pursuit of his goal of "perfection" and is willing to negotiate ethics in his drivenness: He uses modern technology to steal vital information from his opposition (see Goodell above). Belichick also "likes swollen heads inside helmets...and leaves his first team on the field even after well-established leads" according to Litke.

So far, the implied metaphor of Belichick as more of a Captain Ahab than Ahab himself ("Belichick could have taught Ahab a thing or two...") might hold, but ("taught Ahab a thing or two about revenge"?) No. Doesn't work. To suggest that Ahab was seeking revenge on the whale is mistaken. He recklessly sought the "truth" to his own detriment and that of his men. At the end of the day, Belichick is not seeking "truth" in the form of hunting down his opponents or a perfect won/loss record, and his men return home quite wealthy and celebrated, if a bit sore.

But let us dig deeper into the metaphor. Captain Ahab, himself, was inspired by the Old Testament king Ahab of Israel "whose name has become a byword for wickedness." (William Rose Benet, The Reader's Encyclopedia). Instigated by Jezebel, "a woman of loose morals," King Ahab executed a man on false charges because he wanted his vineyard. King Ahab, himself, could not be accused of revenge. He was "merely" wicked. Coach Belichick may be colored in negative terms, but he is neither vengeful nor wicked.

Thus, the metaphor of Belichick as Ahab, either the Captain or the Captain's own prototype, is a metaphor gone as far astray as the Pequod sailing after the white whale. Fortunately Mr. Litke is not going down with the whale. He will live to write another day while perhaps using perfected metaphors.

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Silly Similies, Mediocre Metaphors

The object of using similes and metaphors is to "enlighten (emphasis mine) the (listener or reader) by submitting to him a case which he has apparently no concern, and upon which therefore a disinterested judgement may be elicited from him." Fowler's Modern English Usage.

Additionally, a simile is a "comparison proclaimed as such, whereas a metaphor is a tacit comparison (emphasis mine) made by the substitution of the compared notion for the one to be illustrated.... Metaphors serve as a means to explain or persuade; similes compare things of real or supposed beauty." Fowler.

Now that we've established the rules , let's look at a few similes and metaphors found in student writing.

"Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master."

If the woman's face was a "perfect oval," then it could not be an oval, which is "a rounded symmetrical shape longer than it is broad." Oxford Mini Dictionary. An imperfect oval may more likely be said to resemble a circle because it's not perfectly an oval. Also, do circles or ovals have "sides"? A tangent is a straight line that touches a curve, but a curve with sides? Finally, if a simile compares things of real or supposed beauty, what must be the outcome of a face compressed by a thigh master? Can working with a thigh master be described as a "gentle" operation? Nothing "of beauty" is compared here.

Silly similes like the one stated above serve to distract the reader or listener from the thing compared. That is not the point.

We'll be looking for silly similes and mediocre metaphors in the news.