The Genesis of
Metaphor
The New Oxford Dictionary defines the
word ‘metaphor’ as: ‘a figure of speech
in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is
not literally* applicable’, * … for literally
read: actually = factually or: a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of
something else, especially something abstract. (Note: the last part should
read: something less abstract. See below) The word is derived
from the Greek metaphora, from metapherien ‘to transfer’, possibly (my
addition) akin to meta’morph, meaning:
‘beyond’ or ‘trans-form’.
A metaphor is a
user-friendly representation (i.e. into a
useful fiction) of a user-unfriendly instruction bit (or information
bite). A metaphor acts as an imaginary abstraction (i.e. like a computer
icon) that re-presents, actually ‘trans-presents’ a package of information
stored (or active) on a file or folder (in machine language). A metaphor (hence
an imaginary abstracted transformation) is not the same as the instructions
bits (or information bite) it represents, much as ‘the map is not (the same
as) the territory’. It is not possible to recover the actual (hence real) information
of which the metaphor is an imaginary representation from the metaphor (i.e.
icon). The reason
metaphors = icons (= abstracted, imaginary, user friendly information
momentary systems’ status reports) are used (indeed invented by the brain,
and the brain functions as metaphor
simulator) is that they speed up response to vast amounts of instructions
(for instance, photon swarms striking the eye or acoustic pressure packets
striking the ear) which are both irrelevant and obstructive to @best (read:
instant, hence life-saving) response by the user in his actual world. The actual (or f’actual), hence pre-metaphor
instructions base. A vast number of non-conscious instructions (= transmissions, i.e.
transmitter strikes, possibly digital) are condensed and combined to generate
(i.e. transform) as a level 1 ‘formation’. Example: The sunset metaphor. The pre-metaphor level registering, condensing and
ordering – the former are all system’s related - of vast numbers of
instruction bits; for instance, responding to the impact (or impression) of
data bits, for instance, the photon strikes and their variations generated by
the earth turning anti-clockwise. The level 1 metaphor. A level 1 metaphor is a human’s (conscious)
experience of the end-state of pre-metaphor level instruction condensation
and its impact/impression response. The brain invents a quantum of
experience, often called a figure of the mind, and which is a personal
fiction, i.e. a virtual representation, albeit experienced as real by the
observer,* to represent the quantised, i.e. sliced by the observer output of
a vast instruction impact/impression. The fictional experience quantum (i.e.
the virtual impact whole) is not the actual source of the instructions (=
transmitters, or their source!) or the actual condensation of the
instructions or the actual instruction impact. The experience quantum happens
as personally ‘emerged’ formation bite wholly different from the actual
impact bite. That (in-)formation bite is created to
permit its creator instant response to contact in his world, hence is
self-user-friendly. E.g. seeing (i.e. experiencing) the sun disappearing
over the horizon. (The underlined words are 2nd
level metaphors). The level 2 metaphor. All internal expressions of pre-metaphor
transmitter strike (i.e. instructions) impressions, hence imaginary
transformations of an experience (for instance as concept, thought or
feeling) are 2nd level metaphors. In other words, they are
invented as actual, information reduced (i.e. abstracted and fictionalised),
self -user-friendly output (i.e. expression, hence transmission) icons. E.g. naming the sun’s disappearance a ‘sunset’. (The
sun does not actually set. Hence the word ‘sunset’ is an imaginary figure =
fiction of speech that represents (with an arbitrary sound bite) an imaginary
figure/fiction of the mind). The level 3 metaphor. All external expressions of an internal virtual
image, i.e. a level 2 metaphor, experienced as a real fact.* Such expressions
are spoken (i.e. communicable sound bites) or written (i.e. communicable)
drawings, to wit, as figures (read: fictions) of verbal interaction. Such
verbal expressions served as general, low specificity, hence high currency
level 2nd metaphor communications devices. E.g. the
word ‘sunset’ (i.e. a virtual
reality) is invented. The level 4 metaphor (i.e. the NOD’s definition). This is a highly
specific, low general currency 3rd metaphor level representation
designed to achieve maximum impression/impact. In short, the 4th
level metaphor is designed for (or adapted from) a particular user (within a
particular sub-culture) to increase the probability of acceptance/response by
that user and to speed up that user’s response to his world. E.g. ‘sunset’
is represented to a toddler as ‘the sandman is coming’. If one understands
the metaphor sequence derived from the actual initial experience, then ‘the
sandman is coming’ makes perfect sense (allows for a real sensory reaction
activated via memory) when used to explain oncoming darkness to a toddler.
However, if the sequence is unknown, then its origin, namely the original
non-conscious instructions package, remains unknown, that is to say, it is
not possible to recover the original impressions/impacts (upon the eye) about
the earth turning anti-clockwise against the sun. The Buddhist term nirvana functions as a 4th level
metaphor. The problem with this metaphor is that at least 15 3rd
level metaphors, derived from 15 2nd level metaphors, have been
proposed as its derivation. The result is that there is no certainty as to
precisely what the word ‘nirvana’ means at either the 2nd or the 1st
metaphor levels and at the originating instructions (indeed,
self-instructions) package level. During his 40+
years wandering around Northern India as an itinerant beggar (= wisdom
busker) the Buddha did not once produce either an unambiguous 1st
metaphor level definition (i.e. a 3rd level description of his
actual experience) or pre-metaphor level description of the term nirvana. It is generally assumed that his failure
to produce a meaningful (hence wholly compelling) definition of the term was
intentional in that he, playing the Zero Game (i.e. no position = sunya, like Nagarjuna centuries later), grasped the creative
possibilities of strategic ambiguity and which prevents closure. |
