All you need is love! Here's a favorite video montage by a favorite (belated) artist. You can feel the aloha spirit. IZ's version is top notch. "Somewhere over the Rainbow" totally describes how I feel today and where I am in life. Miss you mom. XOXOXO
I also came across this "valentine" to the movies of 2009. Brilliantly edited. Bet you can't stop watching...enjoy!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Power of Metaphor
This is a short but very interesting TedTalk on the hidden power of metaphor to influence everything from a hit song to stock market trends to thought experiments (aka playing with elaborate analogies which Albert Einstein enjoyed doing). File this one under inspirational wordsmithing.
Critique - although James Geary knows his subject well (and has written a book about it), he comes across as an academic here (yawn) and doesn't take the time to bring the audience up to speed with his concepts before sprinting to the next one. Because he's in a "teaching mode", this talk would've been better (easier to assimilate) had his bare bones lecture been given more flesh. Hah!
One can see how saying the most with the least number of words can become habitual - even when it's not the best style for a given project. In any case, I was compelled to watch this video three times in an effort to unravel the skein he lays down and make it part of the fabric of my own understanding. I imagine most people won't bother to go back to listen a second time so...
Here are the key takeaways
The "network of analogies" that an effective metaphor creates. It's likely that these theories are taught in the cognitive sciences but I never heard the metaphorical thread described that way before. The point is, that by teasing out the "network of analogies" inherent in the metaphor, a writer can extend the central metaphor throughout a given piece, expanding on it and creating cohesiveness and variety without repeating a single phrase.
The difference between "agent metaphors" and "object metaphors" (climbing versus falling) is more powerful information. Another writer taught me about this one using different terms. I have always understood this as the difference between choosing active verbs over passive ones. The more active and uniquely descriptive the phrase, the stronger the copy (i.e., it's cooler to "rip up the road" than to merely "drive fast").
The idea of "conceptual synesthesia" (the calculated result of cross-sensory metaphor) really stood out for me. It gives us a handle on another effective writing tool. Synesthetic connections (taking one sensory descriptive and assigning it to something foreign to it) are said to be highly memorable (i.e., prickly pear, blue cat, loud tie, dream machine). I think that's what Geary means when he says "shaking things up" with metaphors leads to discovery and invention.
That said, I just put James Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists on my wish list. And now I leave you with...
A thought for the day
"I shake things up, therefore I am". Gotta love that one!
Critique - although James Geary knows his subject well (and has written a book about it), he comes across as an academic here (yawn) and doesn't take the time to bring the audience up to speed with his concepts before sprinting to the next one. Because he's in a "teaching mode", this talk would've been better (easier to assimilate) had his bare bones lecture been given more flesh. Hah!
One can see how saying the most with the least number of words can become habitual - even when it's not the best style for a given project. In any case, I was compelled to watch this video three times in an effort to unravel the skein he lays down and make it part of the fabric of my own understanding. I imagine most people won't bother to go back to listen a second time so...
Here are the key takeaways
The "network of analogies" that an effective metaphor creates. It's likely that these theories are taught in the cognitive sciences but I never heard the metaphorical thread described that way before. The point is, that by teasing out the "network of analogies" inherent in the metaphor, a writer can extend the central metaphor throughout a given piece, expanding on it and creating cohesiveness and variety without repeating a single phrase.
The difference between "agent metaphors" and "object metaphors" (climbing versus falling) is more powerful information. Another writer taught me about this one using different terms. I have always understood this as the difference between choosing active verbs over passive ones. The more active and uniquely descriptive the phrase, the stronger the copy (i.e., it's cooler to "rip up the road" than to merely "drive fast"). The idea of "conceptual synesthesia" (the calculated result of cross-sensory metaphor) really stood out for me. It gives us a handle on another effective writing tool. Synesthetic connections (taking one sensory descriptive and assigning it to something foreign to it) are said to be highly memorable (i.e., prickly pear, blue cat, loud tie, dream machine). I think that's what Geary means when he says "shaking things up" with metaphors leads to discovery and invention.
That said, I just put James Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists on my wish list. And now I leave you with...
A thought for the day
"I shake things up, therefore I am". Gotta love that one!
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