Metaphoric Reality

Oregon Lottery Poster 2014

Sucking blood from a stone?

Over the past several years I have been musing upon the usage of metaphors. They inundate our daily life: rain = sorrow, a rose = love, a wedding ring = eternal love, and yes, I could continue for a very long time; I possess a (economically useless) Masters in English Literature. The question for the day is if the constant, longstanding use of a metaphor -- such as that of a blood-sucking vampire -- as a stand-in for a regular Jane/Joe human behaving in a way which denudes the impacted "victim"-- somehow waters down the original word / idea / entity.

The secondary question would be, if the word "vampire" as metaphor does indeed water down the idea/word/entity, why would it matter? Science tells us, empirically, that real undead, revivified, returned to life vampires do not exist.

Certainly a wide field of literature and media play with this willful assumption of disbelief. Most notably (if my memory serves), Bram Stoker had Helsing argue in Dracula that the most effective way to hide ones existence was to make people believe you are fiction. I do not think he took it the concept far enough. Far to say one is hiding ones existence is still to posit that one exists.

 I have thought, for a fair length of time as I've worked on the idea of vampire as a metaphor, that the best way to hide ones existence it to water it down, to make the very idea of ones existence so used as an everyday noun/verb that it no longer refers to anything specific. The noun "vampire" becomes synonymous with any person sucking the life -- economically, physically, or emotionally -- from another person. 

They are behaving "vampirically" (adverb describing a verb). And if any Joe/Jane can be a metaphoric vampire; pouf goes any concept whatsoever that these fictional beings might actually share the earth with us for we are all, at one time or another, vampires ourselves.

I will pause to reassure anyone who happens upon this post -- I am not positing the existence of the real creature. Nor do I discount it. I am just noting that one function of a cliche is to water down the power of the idea being cliched. Let's look at an almost useless, but very societally meaningful, cliche: The dark and stormy night. Does the rendering of the concept into an overused, almost meaningless cliche actually water down, make less valid -- less real -- the torrential downpour pushed by high winds that the cliche represents?I do suggest that the overuse of the metaphor is rendering it a cliche with a check-list attached, and that the overuse of the metaphor waters down the original in our collective consciousness. We humanize our concept of the vampire, taming them in our minds, and then use it as a pejorative name for each other.

What do you think? Does overuse of a metaphor water down the reality of the vampire?

The Grave by Karamsin part 2

Taken in New Orleans 2009

It would have been terrific if the book ELOCUTION AND ORATORY (yes, all caps) had arrived with a table of contents or an index. I would have found the rest of the short dialogue which I posted a few weeks ago and posted the whole at once. At least the full poetic dialogue comes with minimal attribution; it was apparently written by someone named Karamsin. A reminder that it
speaks rather eloquently of the two approaches to the topic of death. One sees it is a true negative, the other sees the bright-light. 



1. "First Voice
  How frightful the grave!  how deserted and drear!
                     With the howls of the storm-wind -- the creaks of the bier,
                      And the white bones all clattering together!

2. "Second Voice

 How peaceful the grave! its quite how deep;

                       Its zephyres breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep,

                         And flowerets perfume it with ether.

3. "First Voice
There riots the blood-crested worm on the dead
And the yellow skull serves the foul toad for a bed
And snakes in its nettle-weeds hiss.

4. "Second Voice

How lovely, how sweet the repose of the tomb;

No tempests are there -- but the nightingales come

And sing their sweet chorus of bliss. 

5. "First Voice
The ravens of night flap their wings o're the grave;
'This the vulture's abode -- 'this the wolf's dreary cave,
Where they tear up the earth with their fangs.

6. "Second Voice

There the rabbit at evening disports with his love,

Or rests on the sod -- while the turtles above,

Repose on the bough that o'erhangs.

7. "First Voice
There darkness and dampness with poisonous breath
And loathsome decay, fill the dwelling of death,
And trees are all barren and bare!

8. "Second Voice

Oh, soft are the breezes that play round the tomb

And sweet with the violet's wafted perfume,

 With lilies and jessamine fair.

9. "First Voice
The pilgrim who reaches this valley of tears,
Would fain hurry by, with trembling and fears,
He is launched on the wreck-covered river.

10. "Second Voice

The traveler, outworn with life's pilgrimage dreary,

Lays down his rude staff, like one that is weary,

And sweetly reposes forever!

I don't think either side of this dialogue really um...dialogues with the other. They each present a quite different viewpoint (glass half-full, glass half empty?) and walk away fully convinced they have convinced each other. Interesting period piece. 







author: unknown since all attribution is just missing in this text -- a very Victorian approach to intellectual property.

The Grave

Highgate Cemetery London

One of the most fascinating things I've noted in the years I've been researching, photographing, writing about, and teaching about vampires is the way different people react totally differently when the topic of death and what happens to the person after death comes up. Today's post is a short dialogue taken from the book ELOCUTION AND ORATORY (yes, all caps). The antique book arrived on my shelf with no cover, and the first twenty-four pages missing.

It does speak rather eloquently of the two approaches to the topic. One sees it is a true negative, the other sees the bright-light. 

"First Voice: How frightful the grave!  how deserted and drear!
                     With the howls of the storm-wind -- the creaks of the bier,
                      And the white bones all clattering together!
"Second Voice: How peaceful the grave! its quite how deep;
                       Its zephyres breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep,
                         And flowerets perfume it with ether.

author: unknown since all attribution is just missing in this text -- a very Victorian approach to intellectual property.