In many ways metaphor is the last frontier of creativity. There is a finite amount of unique, discrete ideas that can exist. It is likely that any thought you have has been thought of before, and the chances are higher than you might think—just watch Kirby Ferguson’s video series, “Everything Is A Remix.”  This is a hard concept to internalize: we all want to believe we are independent-thinking free agents, but I have a more deterministic point of view. Think of the periodic table of the elements: given that the universe is composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons, there are only so many combinations of these essential parts that form every element in existence. But if you take two of these elements and throw them together at high speeds, you end up with something totally new. And that is what a metaphor is: two separate ideas thrown together at high speeds, and if you’re lucky, the result is something that no one has ever seen before.

 

A Few Thoughts On Metaphor     Monsters      The Lakehouse

The Particle-Wave Duality      Meditation     David Foster Wallace     First Grade