Blog 1

One section of See Through Words that i noticed was where he mentioned the psycholinguist Sam Glucksberg. I thought it was interesting how he described metaphors as “categorization proposals”. To me, this meant making connections between things and doing this by using the 1st thing that comes to mind when thinking about a general subject. Then, applying that prototypical idea to all instances that fit into that category. I liked the example he used of “jail” being comparable to “any unpleasant, confining situation”. I think we use this metaphor often when talking about school or jobs we don’t like.

Another area of Erard’s writing that stood out to me was the paragraph about using metaphors to redesign paintbrushes stood out to me. Erard wrote, “‘Paintbrush as a pump’ isn’t beautiful, but it’s very useful”. This surprised me because it shows how versatile metaphors are. I have always thought of metaphors as just a writing technique used in english class, and had never really thought any more of them. But in this case, and in many other cases, a metaphor was used to spark “new perceptions, explanations, and inventions”. When we stop limiting the use of metaphors in our heads, they can take on all sorts of new roles. Imagine what other limits we could overcome by just thinking about the problem in a new way, using metaphors. I realized that metaphors are a lot more versatile than I have previously given them credit for.

 

One thought on “Blog 1”

  1. This blog post ended on such an amazing note! I hope that you keep some of this for your first draft paper. As you upload images of your annotations, please make sure that you upload a full 3-5 pages. This is a standard ENG 110 ePortfolio requirement, and it can help to get into the habit earlier than later.

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