The Power of Metaphor

Metaphors are very powerful things. They are cognitive super conductors that allow us to process and comprehend complex, metaphysical and conceptual ideas with succinct efficiency. Moreover the power of metaphor goes beyond just the condensing of information and allows for emotional weight to be embedded into meaning.

I wrote last year of the types of metaphor in cinema - cognitive, emotive and, of course, visual. But at the core of what a metaphor is nothing explains so succinctly as this TED talk video from John Geary.

In this compelling 10 min presentation, Geary distills the importance and power of metaphor for all human society - present in our everyday language and shaping (not always for the better) the way we see the world and behave in it.

Whilst never mentioning screen media or narrative storytelling the Ideas the video contains speak to heart of cinema. 

Having spent many years reading and developing screenplays, writing coverage for scripts, assessing treatments and judging writing competitions, I can say with certainty that the two elements unsuccessful or uncompelling screenplays lack are Metaphor and Subtext. Watching this 10min video might well be the solution to part of this problem.

Comments

[Michael Locke]

When I was writing sonnets (yes, Shakespearian, my most enjoyable writing), I had 140 syllables to describe, say, an entire relationship. I never planned a metaphor here, consonance there, they generated themselves in the necessity of how much I had to say, and how, within the structure. Structure is not popular with poets in these days of "slams", consisting more of performance art than printed text. But the structure forges the words to a rhythm and rhyme that makes one choose words again and again, painfully earning each quatrain. I'm working to apply that to screenplays, in that the sum of what is seen and said represents more than just the picture and dialog. Condensing a lifetime of oppression in two seconds of someones eyes. Metaphor is a multiplying tool, to convey far more than just the text or visuals alone, by cross referencing senses, emotions, and memories for an audience to be touched, each in personal ways. Someone reads the sonnet, and tells me an interpretation I never imagined writing it. Metaphors keep on giving, far better than formal language, but yes, work magic when combined. Love that someone else even mentions this in "Reality TV"-consuming age. Please continue...ML