Metaphor and Identity

The unintended consequences of our most powerful tool

There are no rules of architecture for castles in the clouds

Metaphors are powerful language tools for helping us communicate and understand the world around us.

But their use comes at a price. Metaphorical thinking creates a barrier, a separation between direct experience and us.

Everything becomes “like” something else instead of directly identifying with the thing we should be experiencing. We end up watching our life instead of living it.

Metaphor and comparison act as separators and create an existential gap between the world and us.

Through our addiction to TV we have become habituated and inured to watching and we end up taking that stance of watching as our own life and experiences unfold before us.

Magical realism in literature, and art in general, is a way of bridging this gap and identifying with experience…