April 2012
1 post
May 2010
1 post
April 2009
0 posts
March 2009
24 posts
On the one hand, the metaphor here is obvious: Michael talks in the narration about being alone after he’s jumped into the ocean miles away from land. On the other hand, the entire scene is executed damn well, and they refrain from using painfully obvious wording, ie. one man is an island or swimming jargon. Especially evocative is the music, which is Jessy Greene’s “Time...
Death Cab for Cutie “Cath…”
Sometimes, the absence of metaphor is just as jarring. The music video is not a medium known for subtlety, but have we lost all faith in the people’s imagination? This isn’t an interpretation of the text—this is transliteration. Don’t worry that you didn’t get it when you merely heard the song as music and words. This...
Even the New York Times has its metaphor woes
From this week’s After Deadline (my favorite NYtimes.com feature):My colleague Adam Bryant, an editor in Business, notes that business writers tend to reach for metaphors to try to make complicated aspects of finance and economic policy more accessible. It’s the right instinct, but as Adam says, problems can arise when we mix and match metaphors in a single sentence or paragraph. In recent...
What Dreams May Come - The Hunt For The Worst... →
When Robin Williams dies, he actually runs down a TUNNEL towards a LIGHT. Get it? That’s how you get to heaven, dummy.
Bless Videogum, doing the good work of pointing out the best metaphors so I don’t have to suffer through that movie again to bring them to you.
There’s something very meta about that, too.
To me, there’s nothing freer than a bird, you know, just flying wherever...
– Ronnie Van Zant, spoken during an interview while fishing.
‘Cause we needed clarification on birds being free.
February 2009
9 posts
Kind of like that Oscar short tonight where James...
I just told my roommate about the concept for this blog, and he mentioned another offender: the scene from Any Given Sunday where Jamie Foxx and Al Pacino duke it out over dinner, while in another room the chariot race scene from Ben Hur plays on TV. “This is especially disturbing,” he says, “because Charlton Heston is actually in that movie — so who, in this alternate...
To further clarify
Jess: so explain boxing is a metaphor to me
Jess: i can't watch the video
Megan: ok, well
Megan: the video really . . .
Megan: IN THE SCENE boxing is a metaphor
Megan: it intercuts shots of this one actor having some type of discussion with guys in suits
Megan: with him in a boxing ring with this OTHER guy
Megan: and the guys in suits are gettin' down on him, all 'do you understand you're NOT allowed to do X, Y, and Z?' and in the intercuts he's all beaten down and bloody
Megan: and then he has a little speech about how, of course, he understands, blah blah blah. and in the intercuts he GETS UP! and BEATS THE DUDE DOWN!
Megan: it's like - dude. boxing? is a metaphor. in case you didn't get the undercurrents in the conversation.
Jess: so, basically, it's boxing is a REALLY OBVIOUS metaphor
Yes, well. Clearly one should not go creating communities after an evening of...
– Megan (via boxingisametaphor)
To be fair, I might have said wrestling at the time. Beer is sometimes distracting. :) —Liz
Yes, well. Clearly one should not go creating communities after an evening of...
– Megan
Okay, so this is what inspired the name for this community. The important point is that the community should have been called “boxing is a metaphor.” But whatever. Hilo pretty. Metaphor dumb!
Hulu - Dollhouse: Ghost
Megan: now i’ve created this group
Megan: i can’t remember the...