At 02:25 PM 10/1/2002 +0100, Jennifer Formicelli wrote:


>As for metaphor, I think the metaphorical should be an extension rather than
>a contradiction of the literal.

Jennifer,
   Well, as long as you're remembering that the literal comes into being at
all first as an extension of the metaphorical: no figurative language, no
language. The literal arises with "the letter." The cart can't pull the
horse. Etc.

Also, I know that Peter and I are probably the only two McLuhan enthusiasts
on the list, but I can't help observing that your disagreement with him
seems to be a clash of temperaments, the visualist opposed to the earful.
Your stress is on the line of separation, his on resonant interpenetration
of verse with epigraph. That's not a value judgement or a reckoning of
right  and wrong; just a thought.

>There is such a thing as bad metaphor. Viz,
>Carole Anne Duffy's 'my feelings [or whatever] run like paint in the rain'
>strikes me as hideous, for if paint ran so

   Paint running in water is messy, not an uncommon take on feelings, but
like Marcia I'd want to see the context.

  Cheers,
    Ken