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I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World
For lovers of language and fans of Blink and Freakonomics , New York Times bestselling author James Geary offers this fascinating look at metaphors and their influence in every aspect of our lives, from art to medicine, psychology to the stock market. From President Obama’s political rhetoric to the bursting of the housing bubble, from conversations to commercials, James Geary shows that every aspect of our day-to-day experience is molded by metaphor. Geary takes readers from Aristotle’s investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Romeo’s exclamation “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” may be one of the most well-known metaphors in literature, but metaphor is more than a device of love-struck poets. As Geary demonstrates, metaphor has leaped off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of the stream of consciousness. Witty, persuasive, and original, I Is an Other explores metaphor’s effects on financial decision making, effective advertising, leadership, learning, and more.
297 pages, Paperback
First published January 20, 2011
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2303 people want to read
About the author
James Geary
16 books50 followersJames Geary is the author of the New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism (second edition), Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It, I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World, Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists, and The Body Electric: An Anatomy of The New Bionic Senses. He is an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, the former deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, where he edited Nieman Reports, and the former editor of the European edition of Time magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
February 19, 2011
Thank you, James Geary! By writing this elegant, concise, clear account of the central role that metaphor plays, not just in how we speak and communicate, but also in how we think, you have liberated me. For about two years now I've been walking around with a kind of Sisyphean pebble in my shoe, a constant, niggling, low-grade annoyance that resisted all my efforts to resolve it. You see, there's this other book, Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff (Mark Johnson is listed as a second author on my edition, published in 2003, and presumably a reworking of the original 1979 version by Lakoff). It's an important book, because by all accounts Lakoff and colleagues were the first to identify the central importance of metaphor, their ideas gained widespread currency and have had a huge influence on how other researchers think about language and cognition. So for an armchair linguist like me it seemed important to read it and absorb its message. The problem was, for the life of me, I couldn't get through it. Every month or so I'd pick it up again, read another 20 pages (or possibly the same 20 pages as before), give up in disgust and eventually give myself over to the anodyne comforts of whatever drivel I could find on VH1 or Bravo (Top 40 celebrity feuds, The Real Housezombies of XXX, whatever.....)
"So what?", you may well ask. "Just leave it and get on with your life". But this inability to get through Lakoff and Johnson bothered me, to an irrational extent. It gnawed at me. You see, getting through graduate school was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and there were times when it seemed impossible. The program I was in took particular pride in crushing souls, with the faculty doing their utmost to extinguish any ember of self-esteem that might linger in the wretches they actually allowed to graduate. (These people were seriously fucked up.) But I managed to get out in a reasonably intact state, having learned (or so I believed) that, if nothing else, one ability that I had was that, eventually, no matter how difficult or abstruse the material, I could ultimately manage to figure it out, if I just read it often enough . It might take weeks, even months, but eventually the penny would drop. Having that confidence in my own ability turned out, of course, to be hugely advantageous later on in my career, because all those motivational speakers and professional "coaches" are completely right - believing you can do something is half the battle.
So my complete failure to make any headway with Lakoff and Johnson was seriously messing with my self-image. At times I could convince myself that maybe it was they were to blame, not me, but then my inner demon of self-doubt (called Jed, after a particularly insidious bastard in my graduate school class, who got his kicks from trying to make everyone else feel stupid) would sneer that I was just making excuses.
James Geary has done me (and the rest of the world) an enormous favor, essentially by writing the book that L & J should have written in the first place. Key concepts are introduced and identified as such. The exposition proceeds in a logical, orderly fashion. The examples are interesting, persuasive, insightful, and actually help the reader better understand the concepts being discussed. The man is organized and engaging; he writes with fluidity, humor, and grace. Occasionally his enthusiasm gets the better of him, but for the most part he is careful not to overstate his case. He never condescends to the reader, and his enthusiasm is infectious. As a result, he achieves an authoritative tone, something that Lakoff, an inferior and far less disciplined writer, never manages, despite being the originator of many of the ideas discussed. In fact, after reading Geary's book, some of the major deficiencies in L & J become glaringly obvious. If you find it heavy sledding, it is their fault, not yours. (I'll go into more depth in a separate review of L & J).
A little more about "I is another". A list of the main chapter headings gives a fair idea of its scope (including it here is lazy, but hopefully informative)-
Foreword : Why I is an Other
Metaphor and Thought : All Shook Up
Metaphor and Etymology : Language is Fossil Poetry
Metaphor and Money : How High Can a Dead Cat Bounce?
Metaphor and the Mind : Imagining an Apple in Someone's Eye
Metaphor and Advertising : Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads
Metaphor and the Brain : Bright Sneezes and Loud Sunlight
Metaphor and the Body : Anger is a Heated Fluid in a Container
Metaphor and Politics : Freedom Fries and Liberty Cabbage
Metaphor and Pleasure : Experience is a Comb that Nature Gives to Bald Men
Metaphor and Children : How Should One Refer to the Sky?
Metaphor and Science : The Earth is Like a Rice Pudding
Metaphor and Parables and Proverbs : Mighty Darn good Lies
Metaphor and Innovation : Make it Strange
Metaphor and Psychology : A Little Splash of Color from my Mother
Backword : The Logic of Metaphor
The gist of Geary's message is that metaphor is ubiquitous and fundamental, not just as an intrinsic component of language, it also plays a basic role in cognition. How we perceive our world, and how we think are hugely influenced by metaphors. Sometimes this influence is obvious, but it can also happen well below the radar of our consciousness. Humans are highly suggestible, capable of being "primed" to react in certain ways, whether it's through framing by subtle nuances of language, or by the less subtle manipulation of metaphor engaged in by politicians, marketers, or anyone else trying to elicit a particular emotional response. Geary's examples are interesting and thought-provoking, and their cumulative force is entirely persuasive.
If you think metaphor is something just for poets, think again. In normal conversation, we utter one metaphor for every 10-25 words, which corresponds to about six metaphors a minute. Read this book - it's well worth your time.
Still not convinced? Here's one final example. Have you ever wondered about the language used to describe the behavior of the stock market? When things are trending upward, the kind of metaphor used will generally attribute agency to the market - "The NASDAQ climbed 20 points" - as if of its own volition. This description is more likely to elicit optimism in investors, because climbing is an activity resulting from an internal drive that is presumably likely to continue in the future. Being told, however, that Dow "plummeted" suggests that prices are non-living, non-volitional entities, whose movements are controlled by external forces (an example of what is called an 'object metaphor'). Research shows that the use of agent metaphors to describe stock movements causes people to be more optimistic about future market behavior and invest accordingly; the same information presented using object metaphors leads to more pessimistic investment responses.
METAPHORS MATTER!
"So what?", you may well ask. "Just leave it and get on with your life". But this inability to get through Lakoff and Johnson bothered me, to an irrational extent. It gnawed at me. You see, getting through graduate school was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and there were times when it seemed impossible. The program I was in took particular pride in crushing souls, with the faculty doing their utmost to extinguish any ember of self-esteem that might linger in the wretches they actually allowed to graduate. (These people were seriously fucked up.) But I managed to get out in a reasonably intact state, having learned (or so I believed) that, if nothing else, one ability that I had was that, eventually, no matter how difficult or abstruse the material, I could ultimately manage to figure it out, if I just read it often enough . It might take weeks, even months, but eventually the penny would drop. Having that confidence in my own ability turned out, of course, to be hugely advantageous later on in my career, because all those motivational speakers and professional "coaches" are completely right - believing you can do something is half the battle.
So my complete failure to make any headway with Lakoff and Johnson was seriously messing with my self-image. At times I could convince myself that maybe it was they were to blame, not me, but then my inner demon of self-doubt (called Jed, after a particularly insidious bastard in my graduate school class, who got his kicks from trying to make everyone else feel stupid) would sneer that I was just making excuses.
James Geary has done me (and the rest of the world) an enormous favor, essentially by writing the book that L & J should have written in the first place. Key concepts are introduced and identified as such. The exposition proceeds in a logical, orderly fashion. The examples are interesting, persuasive, insightful, and actually help the reader better understand the concepts being discussed. The man is organized and engaging; he writes with fluidity, humor, and grace. Occasionally his enthusiasm gets the better of him, but for the most part he is careful not to overstate his case. He never condescends to the reader, and his enthusiasm is infectious. As a result, he achieves an authoritative tone, something that Lakoff, an inferior and far less disciplined writer, never manages, despite being the originator of many of the ideas discussed. In fact, after reading Geary's book, some of the major deficiencies in L & J become glaringly obvious. If you find it heavy sledding, it is their fault, not yours. (I'll go into more depth in a separate review of L & J).
A little more about "I is another". A list of the main chapter headings gives a fair idea of its scope (including it here is lazy, but hopefully informative)-
Foreword : Why I is an Other
Metaphor and Thought : All Shook Up
Metaphor and Etymology : Language is Fossil Poetry
Metaphor and Money : How High Can a Dead Cat Bounce?
Metaphor and the Mind : Imagining an Apple in Someone's Eye
Metaphor and Advertising : Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads
Metaphor and the Brain : Bright Sneezes and Loud Sunlight
Metaphor and the Body : Anger is a Heated Fluid in a Container
Metaphor and Politics : Freedom Fries and Liberty Cabbage
Metaphor and Pleasure : Experience is a Comb that Nature Gives to Bald Men
Metaphor and Children : How Should One Refer to the Sky?
Metaphor and Science : The Earth is Like a Rice Pudding
Metaphor and Parables and Proverbs : Mighty Darn good Lies
Metaphor and Innovation : Make it Strange
Metaphor and Psychology : A Little Splash of Color from my Mother
Backword : The Logic of Metaphor
The gist of Geary's message is that metaphor is ubiquitous and fundamental, not just as an intrinsic component of language, it also plays a basic role in cognition. How we perceive our world, and how we think are hugely influenced by metaphors. Sometimes this influence is obvious, but it can also happen well below the radar of our consciousness. Humans are highly suggestible, capable of being "primed" to react in certain ways, whether it's through framing by subtle nuances of language, or by the less subtle manipulation of metaphor engaged in by politicians, marketers, or anyone else trying to elicit a particular emotional response. Geary's examples are interesting and thought-provoking, and their cumulative force is entirely persuasive.
If you think metaphor is something just for poets, think again. In normal conversation, we utter one metaphor for every 10-25 words, which corresponds to about six metaphors a minute. Read this book - it's well worth your time.
Still not convinced? Here's one final example. Have you ever wondered about the language used to describe the behavior of the stock market? When things are trending upward, the kind of metaphor used will generally attribute agency to the market - "The NASDAQ climbed 20 points" - as if of its own volition. This description is more likely to elicit optimism in investors, because climbing is an activity resulting from an internal drive that is presumably likely to continue in the future. Being told, however, that Dow "plummeted" suggests that prices are non-living, non-volitional entities, whose movements are controlled by external forces (an example of what is called an 'object metaphor'). Research shows that the use of agent metaphors to describe stock movements causes people to be more optimistic about future market behavior and invest accordingly; the same information presented using object metaphors leads to more pessimistic investment responses.
METAPHORS MATTER!
March 2, 2012
A suave compliment to Edward de Bono’s ‘Lateral thinking’ paradigm, this breezy compilation of cognitive association research kept me busy for a good two hours deciphering high school puzzles and engaging in blatant Pavlovian consumerism displays. Literally.
In the chapter ‘metaphor and advertising’, I gained no new insights, but this did not prevent me from falling prey to advertising gimmicks. Is someone paying James Geary to flog these things, but look here: this is an Hourglass Coffee maker, of which I am now a proud owner.
[image error]
It yields only two cups of coffee every TWELVE hours, but I HAD to have it, even though I’d never heard of it before. We are all doomed stooges of advertising.
Synesthetic metaphors next. To Daniel Tammet ‘Five is a clap of thunder’. Well, a thunder of claps to you, chappy, I thought, but thats not how MY brain works. Except, of course, it IS! I looked at this:
Which one is bouba and which one is kiki in the images above?
Well, I am pleased to report my answer is in the 98% percentile, YAAAY, (my highest test score ever). Which makes me apparently, completely, and utterly mediocre: one of masses. Still, though, 98%! I’m not letting anyone take that away from me.
The Stroop effect: Here, I am a massive failure, so all is SNAFU then. The idea is to name the colour of the word.
Redemption arrives finally with the purely linguistic synesthetic metaphors. Most people apparently find it easier to cope with a ‘fragrant purple’ rather than a ‘purpled fragrance’ but not I. I am definitely a purpled fragrance kind of girl.
An innocuous phrase: ‘Next Wednesday’s meeting has been moved forward two days’. So. Monday or Friday? Ask enough people and see a correlation: if they are moving (i.e. in motion when they answer) then its Friday. If they are stationary: Monday. Space-time continuum metaphors at work.
Hold a hot cup of coffee in your hands, and the person in front tends to look warm and niceish. Clutch an icy drink and your companion is suddenly cold and heartless.
Look up and say a number. Look down and say a number. Your higher number will be when you were looking up.
Arbitrary coherence concept: good one, must apply at work.
Ooops, whats that? I do believe my first Hourglass has FINALLY percolated. (well in a sense: its a cold brew system). Must see what all the bruhahaha is about now. Whilst thinking about my favourite metaphor in this book: Thomas Beecham’s harpsichord ensemble apparently sounds
like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof.
In the chapter ‘metaphor and advertising’, I gained no new insights, but this did not prevent me from falling prey to advertising gimmicks. Is someone paying James Geary to flog these things, but look here: this is an Hourglass Coffee maker, of which I am now a proud owner.
[image error]
It yields only two cups of coffee every TWELVE hours, but I HAD to have it, even though I’d never heard of it before. We are all doomed stooges of advertising.
Synesthetic metaphors next. To Daniel Tammet ‘Five is a clap of thunder’. Well, a thunder of claps to you, chappy, I thought, but thats not how MY brain works. Except, of course, it IS! I looked at this:
Which one is bouba and which one is kiki in the images above?
Well, I am pleased to report my answer is in the 98% percentile, YAAAY, (my highest test score ever). Which makes me apparently, completely, and utterly mediocre: one of masses. Still, though, 98%! I’m not letting anyone take that away from me.
The Stroop effect: Here, I am a massive failure, so all is SNAFU then. The idea is to name the colour of the word.
Redemption arrives finally with the purely linguistic synesthetic metaphors. Most people apparently find it easier to cope with a ‘fragrant purple’ rather than a ‘purpled fragrance’ but not I. I am definitely a purpled fragrance kind of girl.
An innocuous phrase: ‘Next Wednesday’s meeting has been moved forward two days’. So. Monday or Friday? Ask enough people and see a correlation: if they are moving (i.e. in motion when they answer) then its Friday. If they are stationary: Monday. Space-time continuum metaphors at work.
Hold a hot cup of coffee in your hands, and the person in front tends to look warm and niceish. Clutch an icy drink and your companion is suddenly cold and heartless.
Look up and say a number. Look down and say a number. Your higher number will be when you were looking up.
Arbitrary coherence concept: good one, must apply at work.
Ooops, whats that? I do believe my first Hourglass has FINALLY percolated. (well in a sense: its a cold brew system). Must see what all the bruhahaha is about now. Whilst thinking about my favourite metaphor in this book: Thomas Beecham’s harpsichord ensemble apparently sounds
like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof.
May 13, 2013
I love this book. When I first skimmed it, I came across "he was deeply in Love. when she spoke he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up." And I was hooked (oops, another metaphor!). A key point in this book is that we use metaphor without realising it and in fact our language is pretty much made up of phrases that once were metaphor and became cliche that we accept them as part of our language in the same way 'bread' means bread. Every new word created is somehow a metaphor for some thing(s) else that its like! There's a mixture of light-hearted commonplace phrases contrasted with scientific explanations of language construction. This book is a pearl: Admire it's beauty and see how the layers reveal the truth of our language.
March 31, 2022
A strong 3+ but not quite a 4.
This book is full of really interesting bits of information and also gave me a broader appreciation for the ubiquitous presence of metaphor in our language and thinking. It was really interesting to learn and think about some metaphors that go across cultures and languages and some that differ.
The chapters begin with a discussion of some aspect of metaphors and then go on to apply that to a particular area, such as politics or the body.
It is fun but not a really light read. The research is REALLY impressive, but the tone ends up somewhat overly erudite and academic, and there is so much material that the book seems a bit disorganized, which was a big reason it ended up as a 3.
As a result, I enjoyed it more by picking it up and reading it a chapter at a time. So if the topic appeals to you, I think you will enjoy it, but buy it; do not borrow it from the library!
This book is full of really interesting bits of information and also gave me a broader appreciation for the ubiquitous presence of metaphor in our language and thinking. It was really interesting to learn and think about some metaphors that go across cultures and languages and some that differ.
The chapters begin with a discussion of some aspect of metaphors and then go on to apply that to a particular area, such as politics or the body.
It is fun but not a really light read. The research is REALLY impressive, but the tone ends up somewhat overly erudite and academic, and there is so much material that the book seems a bit disorganized, which was a big reason it ended up as a 3.
As a result, I enjoyed it more by picking it up and reading it a chapter at a time. So if the topic appeals to you, I think you will enjoy it, but buy it; do not borrow it from the library!
May 15, 2014
I never metaphor I didn't like.
December 21, 2014
Most people don't realize how metaphors permeate our everyday language and thought. ("Permeate" is a metaphor.) James Geary's book emphatically and with ample evidence makes the point about the ubiquity of metaphor/simile/analogy. "Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about one metaphor for every ten to twenty-five words, or about six metaphors a minute." For example, looking at an Aug. 5, 2001, San Jose Mercury News A1 story and headlines on the Dow Jones average losing 512.76 points, I see that the large headline reads, "DOW PLUMMETS." The sub-head says, "Stock markets crater after dismal economic reports spark worries that double-dip recession looms." I count five metaphors. The story mentions "worst rout in more than two years," "steep decline," and "stocks have now fallen."
Up/down spatial metaphors, such as those in those headlines and story, can be found in speech and writing all the time. Up is good and down is bad: "down in the dumps," "upscale," "high-end," "low-down," "upper class," "low-quality," "high society," "declining health," "high spirits," "depressed," "low energy," etc.
"I Is an Other" covers some of the same ground as the George Lakoff and Mark Johnson 2003 book "Metaphors We live By," which I read a few years ago. But Geary explores territory that was new to me, particularly a few paragraphs on music. I hadn't thought much about it, despite a lifelong interest in classical music and playing the piano for several decades, that the structure of music is metaphoric. We talk about "high C" and "middle D," "high notes" and "low strings." Musical notation is entirely metaphoric, with tones with a "higher" frequency getting written higher on the staff than tones with "lower" frequency. But in no real sense are tones or notes "higher" or "lower." We can talk only about frequencies, vibrations, and wave lengths of tones, which are themselves metaphors.
At its fundamental level, music is abstract, and when we talk or write about abstract subjects, it is impossible not to fall back on metaphors. A good example is time. Time in its essence has no concrete properties: it has no color, dimension, texture, smell, sound, or taste. Time cannot be described in anything but metaphors. Thus we talk about time as motion ("times flies," "Wednesday's meeting has been moved"), time as a quantity ("saving time"), and time as a line (future as forward, past as back in Western cultures, days and years as dots on a long line, etc.).
But I think most of us forget that these metaphorical descriptions of time are not literal representations of time. They are "time is like ..." not "time is ..." Thus time is not a line or road or a distance. An event 40 years ago is not further away in any real sense than an event of three days ago. And certainly a memory from 40 years ago can be much more vivid ("closer" in a metaphorical sense) than a memory of three days ago.
We cannot talk or write about time except metaphorically. We cannot in a literal sense talk or write about the essence of time, time as it is. And I'm not sure time would have any existence or meaning without a being to experience (or manufacture?) it. Thus time -- which dominates our lives -- is a property-less entity that we can only talk around. It is a true mystery.
Geary's book on metaphors contains many nuggets (a metaphor) of information, research, and examination of subjects such as time, music, politics, science, proverbs, and money, subjects that we deal with most days but don't realize how saturated (another metaphor) with metaphors they are.
Up/down spatial metaphors, such as those in those headlines and story, can be found in speech and writing all the time. Up is good and down is bad: "down in the dumps," "upscale," "high-end," "low-down," "upper class," "low-quality," "high society," "declining health," "high spirits," "depressed," "low energy," etc.
"I Is an Other" covers some of the same ground as the George Lakoff and Mark Johnson 2003 book "Metaphors We live By," which I read a few years ago. But Geary explores territory that was new to me, particularly a few paragraphs on music. I hadn't thought much about it, despite a lifelong interest in classical music and playing the piano for several decades, that the structure of music is metaphoric. We talk about "high C" and "middle D," "high notes" and "low strings." Musical notation is entirely metaphoric, with tones with a "higher" frequency getting written higher on the staff than tones with "lower" frequency. But in no real sense are tones or notes "higher" or "lower." We can talk only about frequencies, vibrations, and wave lengths of tones, which are themselves metaphors.
At its fundamental level, music is abstract, and when we talk or write about abstract subjects, it is impossible not to fall back on metaphors. A good example is time. Time in its essence has no concrete properties: it has no color, dimension, texture, smell, sound, or taste. Time cannot be described in anything but metaphors. Thus we talk about time as motion ("times flies," "Wednesday's meeting has been moved"), time as a quantity ("saving time"), and time as a line (future as forward, past as back in Western cultures, days and years as dots on a long line, etc.).
But I think most of us forget that these metaphorical descriptions of time are not literal representations of time. They are "time is like ..." not "time is ..." Thus time is not a line or road or a distance. An event 40 years ago is not further away in any real sense than an event of three days ago. And certainly a memory from 40 years ago can be much more vivid ("closer" in a metaphorical sense) than a memory of three days ago.
We cannot talk or write about time except metaphorically. We cannot in a literal sense talk or write about the essence of time, time as it is. And I'm not sure time would have any existence or meaning without a being to experience (or manufacture?) it. Thus time -- which dominates our lives -- is a property-less entity that we can only talk around. It is a true mystery.
Geary's book on metaphors contains many nuggets (a metaphor) of information, research, and examination of subjects such as time, music, politics, science, proverbs, and money, subjects that we deal with most days but don't realize how saturated (another metaphor) with metaphors they are.
March 2, 2011
A metaphor is a direct comparison not using "like" or "as," or so it's defined in school. And personification, well... that's personification. But in James Geary's I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor, a wider net is cast and personification along with most every other figurative construction is metaphoric. In fact, the book will widen your metaphoric horizons until you will be harder pressed to identify what's NOT metaphoric.
Just so you know.
OK, by chapter, Geary also takes on the big picture. All chapters are headed "Metaphor and...," including, top to bottom, Thought, Etymology, Money, Mind, Advertising, Brain, Body, Politics, Pleasure, Children, Science, Parables and Proverbs, Innovation, and Psychology. Exhaustive? Almost too so, if you're partial to one topic or another and wish there had been more depth on any among the parade. Instead, this is a survey of sorts -- well-researched, full of data, complete with notes, and out to prove the point. The scientific reader will be pleased, beyond doubt. The artistic reader will be satisfied as well, though the "data" angle might begin to get tiresome after a bit. Luckily, Geary wields a sense of humor, and he's not afraid to use it.
You will learn some interesting facts, like the origin of such words and expressions as "scared shitless," "parting shot," and "fathom." You will learn how good (and how bad) kids are at metaphor (and what types). You will learn how advertisers use metaphor to separate fools (read: us) from their money (read: ours). And you will learn how even politicians, those fools we love to loathe, can pull the proverbial wool over our eyes by way of hiring experts who can handle the highly dangerous thing called "metaphor."
So much for a direct comparison not using "like" or "as" -- that simple thing found only in English class. Uh, no. In fact -- don't look now -- it's all around you (kind of like your Guardian Angel, who's seen enough to write a book himself!). And it's what separates us from the monkeys. And, no surprise, it's like the Internet... both a terrible weapon for bad and a shining example for good.
Read the book, then. It may be the apple of your eye, you may love it to the core, and its ideas may take seed and inspire you.
Dig?
Just so you know.
OK, by chapter, Geary also takes on the big picture. All chapters are headed "Metaphor and...," including, top to bottom, Thought, Etymology, Money, Mind, Advertising, Brain, Body, Politics, Pleasure, Children, Science, Parables and Proverbs, Innovation, and Psychology. Exhaustive? Almost too so, if you're partial to one topic or another and wish there had been more depth on any among the parade. Instead, this is a survey of sorts -- well-researched, full of data, complete with notes, and out to prove the point. The scientific reader will be pleased, beyond doubt. The artistic reader will be satisfied as well, though the "data" angle might begin to get tiresome after a bit. Luckily, Geary wields a sense of humor, and he's not afraid to use it.
You will learn some interesting facts, like the origin of such words and expressions as "scared shitless," "parting shot," and "fathom." You will learn how good (and how bad) kids are at metaphor (and what types). You will learn how advertisers use metaphor to separate fools (read: us) from their money (read: ours). And you will learn how even politicians, those fools we love to loathe, can pull the proverbial wool over our eyes by way of hiring experts who can handle the highly dangerous thing called "metaphor."
So much for a direct comparison not using "like" or "as" -- that simple thing found only in English class. Uh, no. In fact -- don't look now -- it's all around you (kind of like your Guardian Angel, who's seen enough to write a book himself!). And it's what separates us from the monkeys. And, no surprise, it's like the Internet... both a terrible weapon for bad and a shining example for good.
Read the book, then. It may be the apple of your eye, you may love it to the core, and its ideas may take seed and inspire you.
Dig?
August 21, 2018
A good introduction to the leading role of metaphors in our life. The only flaw of the book is touching probably too many topics without really providing an in-depth exploration of them.
February 14, 2015
Thought-provoking, solidly-researched, and (mostly) engagingly written, Geary's biography of the humble metaphor reveals just how deeply it is embedded in our language and also at the heart of our cognition and ability to reason. No mere literary decoration, metaphor "conditions our interpretations of the stock market,... surreptitiously infiltrates our decisions,... nudges public opinion,... spurs creativity and innovation."
Geary's exploration ranges from the individual and personal – with fascinating accounts of how metaphor drives personal insight and change in Clean Language Therapy – to the social and political, noting Lakoff and Johnson's observation that, "The people who get to impose their metaphors on the culture get to define what we consider to be true." He dives deep into neurology and psychology to explore the deep structures of metaphor and how they shape us.
There are occasional sections or chapters that drag, for me particularly the sections focused on business and advertising. The strongest sections are those exploring how metaphors shape our thinking – and how the very structures of our cognition are derived from our embodied existence and mediated to us through metaphor.
Metaphor builds associations between abstract concepts or internal states inaccessible to others and the stuff of the senses and our embodied, space-and-time-bound, existence in order to make these concepts or states comprehensible. Because of metaphorical associations between a sense experience and observations of human character, we know what a "sweet" person is. We understand why big problems are more problematic than small ones, or why weighty or pressing problems require more urgency to deal with than distant ones. Bosom buddies, of course, are "closer" and more delightful than distant relatives. Spatial metaphors determine the value we assign objects, people and experience with "up" and "forward" being almost universally associated with good things or progress, while "down" and "backward" are, instinctively, negative.
I think Geary's less strong when exploring the playful, perception-altering nature of literary metaphor, the power to shape a new way of seeing through forging unexpected but deeply congruent connections between dissimilar things. He has a go, and still has a number of striking observations, drawing examples and quote from a handful of poets and playwrights – the title itself drawn from Rimbaud's poetic manifesto to undertake "a long, boundless, and systematised disorganisation of all the senses." But I felt his heart was more in the science than in the poetry of metaphor.
It's a good read, though. Geary's book is a kaleidoscope that defamiliarises what we take for granted and causes us to pay attention not so much to what we see, as to how we see.
Geary's exploration ranges from the individual and personal – with fascinating accounts of how metaphor drives personal insight and change in Clean Language Therapy – to the social and political, noting Lakoff and Johnson's observation that, "The people who get to impose their metaphors on the culture get to define what we consider to be true." He dives deep into neurology and psychology to explore the deep structures of metaphor and how they shape us.
There are occasional sections or chapters that drag, for me particularly the sections focused on business and advertising. The strongest sections are those exploring how metaphors shape our thinking – and how the very structures of our cognition are derived from our embodied existence and mediated to us through metaphor.
Metaphor builds associations between abstract concepts or internal states inaccessible to others and the stuff of the senses and our embodied, space-and-time-bound, existence in order to make these concepts or states comprehensible. Because of metaphorical associations between a sense experience and observations of human character, we know what a "sweet" person is. We understand why big problems are more problematic than small ones, or why weighty or pressing problems require more urgency to deal with than distant ones. Bosom buddies, of course, are "closer" and more delightful than distant relatives. Spatial metaphors determine the value we assign objects, people and experience with "up" and "forward" being almost universally associated with good things or progress, while "down" and "backward" are, instinctively, negative.
Our bodies prime our metaphors, and our metaphors prime how we think and act.
I think Geary's less strong when exploring the playful, perception-altering nature of literary metaphor, the power to shape a new way of seeing through forging unexpected but deeply congruent connections between dissimilar things. He has a go, and still has a number of striking observations, drawing examples and quote from a handful of poets and playwrights – the title itself drawn from Rimbaud's poetic manifesto to undertake "a long, boundless, and systematised disorganisation of all the senses." But I felt his heart was more in the science than in the poetry of metaphor.
It's a good read, though. Geary's book is a kaleidoscope that defamiliarises what we take for granted and causes us to pay attention not so much to what we see, as to how we see.
February 10, 2011
This book describes the psychology behind using metaphors for areas of our life, such as advertisements, science, stockmarket, innovation and politics. There is also a chapter on Aspergers and metaphors.
There were lots of examples from research as well as techniques that use metaphors, for instance in deciding a marketing campaign, or in a form of psychotherapy.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I am interested in words in general: where do they comes from (yes, that etymology bit), how do people use them, etc.
In this book, I learned a lot of new things and it was interesting to read about the research that backed up the claims. The book was not at all heavy going, and while I am not always a keen non-fiction reader, I found myself lost in this book sometimes, finishing yet another chapter before I knew it.
I would consider this book a psychology book rather than a linguistics book, as it describes especially how people react to metaphors and how metaphors influence people’s lives.
There were lots of examples from research as well as techniques that use metaphors, for instance in deciding a marketing campaign, or in a form of psychotherapy.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I am interested in words in general: where do they comes from (yes, that etymology bit), how do people use them, etc.
In this book, I learned a lot of new things and it was interesting to read about the research that backed up the claims. The book was not at all heavy going, and while I am not always a keen non-fiction reader, I found myself lost in this book sometimes, finishing yet another chapter before I knew it.
I would consider this book a psychology book rather than a linguistics book, as it describes especially how people react to metaphors and how metaphors influence people’s lives.
July 19, 2018
There are very few popular books I have paused to read carefully. This really shaped the way I think about how I think and how I think about how other people think. It has considerably added to engaging people more insightfully and seeing how we construct our convictions and how much w depend on metaphor for even very basic thinking let along abstractions.
September 16, 2019
Loved it! A very cool read for any fans of language or any other number of topics. Especially loved the looks at metaphor’s role in politics, advertising, and psychology.
The book was informative and well-written (if sometimes a bit meandering). A great vacation read.
The book was informative and well-written (if sometimes a bit meandering). A great vacation read.
September 14, 2019
كتاب رائع عن المجاز والاستعارة في كافة مجالات الحياة كالاقتصاد والعلوم والأدب وغيرها... خيال الإنسان خصب فعلًا!
September 16, 2020
Highly recommended
September 9, 2023
"I is an Other" explores metaphor and highlights how it's deeply imbedded in both our human culture as well as our human nature. With each chapter he unpacks how metaphor shows up and is used in both human perception and comprehension in various areas of life.
Why I wanted to read it: I love reading about the science of writing and the logic and reasoning behind how writing works, along with all of its peripheral subjects, like grammar, voice, and the like. This book had been our shelf for years before I realized it was even there, and then I couldn't believe I hadn't picked it up yet, since the title itself was so in line with all that I'm interested in.
I think I might have had wrong expectations about this book (this seems to have been my experience of my last few books I've read, excepting "Prince Caspian"). I expected it to be more about the craft of metaphor and the tool that it can be in writing and communicating with readers, but if I had more honestly read the subtitle, "The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World," I might've enjoyed the book more.
Aside from this, the book was....interesting. Geary does this thing in the book where he quotes or describes social experiment after social experiment (all having to do with metaphor, of course) in each chapter, but without quite linking them together or explaining how it fits within the greater topic of the chapter, so it often felt like he was railing off facts without quite making an argument, and if he was making an argument, I wasn't ever sure what it was. I couldn't decipher any sort of chapter outline from each area of life he explored, and so I struggled to follow his train of thought or decipher his message in each chapter.
There were, however, a few chapters and even nuggets within the more confusing chapters that I really enjoyed. Chapter Four: Metaphor and the Mind, explored how people with autism or Asperger's syndrome (and the like) deal with living in a world so enriched by metaphor without ever understanding it, without being able to use it for themselves as a tool in social situations. I found this particularly fascinating because my brother has Asperger's and I've had several friends who are on the spectrum of autism, and while I've observed their struggles in social contexts (and sometimes mitigated them), it was interesting to read more of what's happening in their brains, and how they can brilliantly self-mitigate. Chapter Ten: Metaphor and Children, was also enjoyable to read, just because it highlighted the reality of my daily experiences with my own children in a way that was both relatable and challenging: how do I intentionally look for, notice, and embrace these moments of creativity, where my children make the world their own through the natural use of metaphor?
There were several other topics within the book that were impactful, but these two stick out the most.
Overall, I think this book is good for considering levels of human nature that we don't think about on a daily basis, and for adding to our knowledge of the complexities of being human, growing in us greater humility and grace toward others as they maneuver the various hidden meanings of life and all its facets.
Why I wanted to read it: I love reading about the science of writing and the logic and reasoning behind how writing works, along with all of its peripheral subjects, like grammar, voice, and the like. This book had been our shelf for years before I realized it was even there, and then I couldn't believe I hadn't picked it up yet, since the title itself was so in line with all that I'm interested in.
I think I might have had wrong expectations about this book (this seems to have been my experience of my last few books I've read, excepting "Prince Caspian"). I expected it to be more about the craft of metaphor and the tool that it can be in writing and communicating with readers, but if I had more honestly read the subtitle, "The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World," I might've enjoyed the book more.
Aside from this, the book was....interesting. Geary does this thing in the book where he quotes or describes social experiment after social experiment (all having to do with metaphor, of course) in each chapter, but without quite linking them together or explaining how it fits within the greater topic of the chapter, so it often felt like he was railing off facts without quite making an argument, and if he was making an argument, I wasn't ever sure what it was. I couldn't decipher any sort of chapter outline from each area of life he explored, and so I struggled to follow his train of thought or decipher his message in each chapter.
There were, however, a few chapters and even nuggets within the more confusing chapters that I really enjoyed. Chapter Four: Metaphor and the Mind, explored how people with autism or Asperger's syndrome (and the like) deal with living in a world so enriched by metaphor without ever understanding it, without being able to use it for themselves as a tool in social situations. I found this particularly fascinating because my brother has Asperger's and I've had several friends who are on the spectrum of autism, and while I've observed their struggles in social contexts (and sometimes mitigated them), it was interesting to read more of what's happening in their brains, and how they can brilliantly self-mitigate. Chapter Ten: Metaphor and Children, was also enjoyable to read, just because it highlighted the reality of my daily experiences with my own children in a way that was both relatable and challenging: how do I intentionally look for, notice, and embrace these moments of creativity, where my children make the world their own through the natural use of metaphor?
There were several other topics within the book that were impactful, but these two stick out the most.
Overall, I think this book is good for considering levels of human nature that we don't think about on a daily basis, and for adding to our knowledge of the complexities of being human, growing in us greater humility and grace toward others as they maneuver the various hidden meanings of life and all its facets.
July 22, 2015
An incredible compendium of sources, facts and theories, this is a very broad survey of the places metaphor is used in human culture. As a general survey however, which is difficult enough for a material object to achieve, many of the sections did not provide ample arguments for there to be so many sections, indeed many arguments seemed directed at a previous chapter. I found these subsections very interesting theoretically, but was unsatisfied by a number of attempts at conclusions. The ending felt abrupt.
The book also lacked intense examinations of writing, which could easily have been explored in a variety of sections. A lot of studies were mentioned, but fewer literary immersions. There were definitely moments of lovely writing, however, and I get the sense that hanging out with Mr. Geary would be a pretty fascinating afternoon of conversation and learning a variety of new things.
A post-script note: I read this book as part of my investigation on metaphor for my dissertation, so in its comparisons to somewhat more intense reading, it pales a bit. However, it is fairly light and engaging reading for a less rigorous study of metaphor and it definitely engages many more examples of metaphor as a general census (and does a good job of explaining each) than anything else I've found so far!
The book also lacked intense examinations of writing, which could easily have been explored in a variety of sections. A lot of studies were mentioned, but fewer literary immersions. There were definitely moments of lovely writing, however, and I get the sense that hanging out with Mr. Geary would be a pretty fascinating afternoon of conversation and learning a variety of new things.
A post-script note: I read this book as part of my investigation on metaphor for my dissertation, so in its comparisons to somewhat more intense reading, it pales a bit. However, it is fairly light and engaging reading for a less rigorous study of metaphor and it definitely engages many more examples of metaphor as a general census (and does a good job of explaining each) than anything else I've found so far!
May 13, 2014
This book is interesting, but for me, much too detailed. Geary educated me, and made his points in the first two chapters. Also it seemed like as the book went on, he used more and more words that are not in my context. But, the book did cause me to think differently about metaphors. Who am I kidding, I never thought about them before. Anyway, I have purposefully begun to pay attention to the verbiage in magazines, TV, and movies, and am more acutely aware of how metaphors influence our emotions, and even how they can nudge our buying habits. Maybe that was too mild. Perhaps I should say not nudge, but cause us to prefer one product over another. Should you read this book? I suggest reading the first few chapters and skimming the rest, unless you are a wordsmith, a lexicologist, or really really really smart. Then you should watch TV advertisements to test your new found knowledge of this not so secret tool.
April 15, 2016
This was less a work about style, rhetoric, writing, and literary studies than it was about the psycho-social nature of metaphor and its impact upon humans and their societies.
As a general introduction to the concept of metaphor it was interesting. If readers, however, are looking for a more in-depth reading/analysis of metaphor they will have to look elsewhere.
There was a problem with the formatting of the Kindle book as well...it was left-justified when the standard is full-justification. Though there is nothing wrong with the method the author chose in justifying the book it is disconcerting to see this on the page.
Recommended as a very basic introduction to metaphor and its psycho-social function.
As a general introduction to the concept of metaphor it was interesting. If readers, however, are looking for a more in-depth reading/analysis of metaphor they will have to look elsewhere.
There was a problem with the formatting of the Kindle book as well...it was left-justified when the standard is full-justification. Though there is nothing wrong with the method the author chose in justifying the book it is disconcerting to see this on the page.
Recommended as a very basic introduction to metaphor and its psycho-social function.
October 26, 2014
Began this months ago but could not get into it. Picked it up again recently and this time it clicked. I wonder if that was because I have been watching the National Geographic channel series Brain Games and many of the points made in this book were covered in that series. Far from a book on writing/rhetoric/literary aspects of metaphor, this was a book about the brain and thought processes. I've always been a big fan of "connections" and that's what this book was about- we understand metaphor because of the experiences/life connections we bring to thought. In the end this was a pretty fascinating read.
April 12, 2011
I read this book for a long-distance family book club that the Tarasovic-Talbots are currently beta testing. I think it would have been a great book to read if you were in daily contact with another person reading it, because it's peppered with interesting ideas that might spark some good discussion between co-readers. Two weeks after finishing it, though, I'm struggling to remember a single one of those ideas, and kind of come away with the notion that this book had one major point (Everything Is a Metaphor) that it tried to drill home in a million different (and often repetitive) ways, yet never really got around to explaining why that central notion was so important.
April 28, 2011
This book is a good initiation into current thinking on metaphor. Although it does consider nearly everything to be metaphor, it also taps true contributions on metaphor from important writers, artists, and scientists. It shows how metaphor permeates our lives and helps to make the inexplicable familiar, to help us navigate the unknown, and to enrich - and beautify - our learning. It also operationalizes metaphor as a problem-solving tool, for the whole range of thinkable problems.
July 10, 2016
This was a great book. It lightly touches on how important metaphors are in virtually every aspect of our lives. It does leave you with a greater appreciation for how humans use metaphor to learn new things. The claim that it is only through what's already known that we learn about the unknown, is a very important concept that I plan on taking with me. Overall I considered the book to be very entertaining and eye opening.
December 18, 2016
I disagree with a lot of how Geary presents metaphors (really man, read more Lakoff, Johnson, Black, and Berggren before you start to discuss metaphor theory and its implications), but I love how intense/compact/detailed his chapters were. I had to breezed through sections because of finals week, but I plan on returning to Geary in the future. This deserves my full time. Although it could use an update—I found a few glaring errors.
May 31, 2023
A truly wonderful read.
"To achieve this systematized disorder, Rimbaud believed the poet needed to see similarity in difference and difference in similarity. Things are never just things in themselves; a visionary company of associations, correspondences, semblances always attends them. Everything can be seen—and, for Rimbaud, everything should be seen—as something else.
Rimbaud summarized his poetic mission, and his working method, in the phrase: 'I is an other.'"
"To achieve this systematized disorder, Rimbaud believed the poet needed to see similarity in difference and difference in similarity. Things are never just things in themselves; a visionary company of associations, correspondences, semblances always attends them. Everything can be seen—and, for Rimbaud, everything should be seen—as something else.
Rimbaud summarized his poetic mission, and his working method, in the phrase: 'I is an other.'"
February 8, 2015
Geary provides an accessible and imaginative walk through the role metaphors play in our language and in our lives. He pulls together a lot of interesting research, from Lakoff and Johnson, psychology metaphors for therapy, and even market research methods. Geary is also very good at tying off a chapter with am amazingly succinct closing paragraph.
April 2, 2015
I came to this via Eula Biss’s citings of it in On Immunity. It is comprehensive, sometimes amusing, and endlessly curious for anyone who is interested in how and why we describe things in terms of other things.
July 19, 2015
Very interesting, Is it possible to write a book on Metaphor? He did it. Amazing, Author went throughout the world to collect information and present all in one single book. Great work and lovely presentation. Enjoyed.
July 20, 2016
Mind = blown
December 30, 2014
Another great book about metaphor. I liked it so much that I bought it for myself.
September 9, 2016
I found this book pretty useful reading material. I learned a lot that I did not know before.
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