Writing practice: metaphors/imagery
[but first…]
There’s something really magical about seeing a thing for what it is. When all the extraneous irrelevancies fall away and you see the true nature of a thing. And we humans pile on these irrelevancies as much to distract ourselves as to distract others, and also as a result of lacking true understanding. Not being able to see a thing is frustration, being able to see is calming, peaceful, almost uplifting no matter the thing because to be able to see a thing is to be able to act on it by seeing it for what it is.
Anyway, back to metaphors…
Starting with the first two lines of Richard III: “Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York;” Now make your own metaphor using that as the base:
Well first, I don’t know why he used the word ‘discontent’ because it sounds like they’re just getting out of a period of war, and ‘discontent’ is not a word I’d use to describe the general mood of a people at war. Fear perhaps, dread, depression, whatever, but discontent sounds more like the people are put off because they are no longer being sufficiently entertained by the war. But whatever, just go with it.
Well, I also don’t understand how there can be a ‘winter’ of discontent, for what would the summer of discontent be like? Less discontent? It’s like the winter of fear vs the summer of fear, as though there can be a sun-shiny period of fear. Again, whatever.
And I don’t think it would be a glorious summer, the way he describes merry meetings, delightful measures, capering nimbly sounds more like spring, the renewal and awakening of life, of optimism. It should be a winter/spring image, not winter/summer. Summer is full development, but it sounds like they are experiencing a rebirth.
Now is our joie de vivre so dormant long Awakened by York’s son from wint’ry war
I think Shakespeare would not have used a french expression except in mocking, and particularly to open a paly about English monarchy. But, I think this at least makes more sense…
It’s a daily practice of trying to see a thing for what it is by removing the mass of extraneous material and unraveling the balled twine of our thinking. Just trying to see a thing for what it is – that’s very beautiful and powerful. Remove the adjectives and adverbs, the smuggled premises. Just keep what it is. Remove the hype and hope and anthropomorphisms and projections. Remove yourself from that which you are trying to see – true understanding requires the humility to remove one’s ego and sense of self from one’s observations and analyses, and that is very hard.
So that is at least one important reason to empathize with the other even if the other isn’t worth empathizing with and/or would never reciprocate – by doing so, you can try to remove yourself from your observations and analyses in order to truly understand the other, which leads to calm and power. That is the benefit one derives, even if one doesn’t have the power to directly affect – at least one can accurately describe.
But again, just practice removing the adjectives and adverbs, and just look at the nouns and verbs…