See Through Words

After reading the “See Through Words,” by Michael Erard, I have gained a brand new perspective on how metaphors are created, and how much of a thought process it is to come up with a persuasive, non-bias metaphor. One part in the reading that stood out to me the most was how metaphors can “jumpstart” people’s minds and give them new ways of thinking. The example given Erard was the metaphor, “A paintbrush is a kind of pump. A professor from MIT was working to create a paintbrush that would hold paint but also apply smoothly. With this metaphor, it gave engineers the idea to make the paint brush to work like a pump. This connection between a pump and a paintbrush lead to new ideas for engineers and opens up the brain for more connections to occur and help them think. Not only do metaphors expand the English language, but it also creates a variety of new ideas.

Another concept that Erard took a look at was if metaphors were categories or mappings. When I first saw this idea, I had to give it a second thought because I didn’t really understand it at first. Even Erard said how scholars still don’t know the answer to this, but it’s an interesting debate. This can also lead to the question why some metaphors aren’t reversible and how they only work one way, such as, “my jail is a job.” Personally I think metaphors are more categorical because when we describe a metaphor like, “A paintbrush is a pump,” we are relating these two items to a whole category of painting, how pumps work, and so much more. We aren’ necessarily making direct comparisons in mapping, but rather making ideas in categories.