on metaphors by ocean vuong | Are.na

metaphors should have two things: sensory (visual, texture, sound, etc) connector between origin image and the transforming image as well as a clear logical connector between both images. if you have only one of either, best to forgo the metaphor. otherwise it will seem forced or read like "writing" if that makes sense. [...] essentially, metaphors that go awry can signal a hurried desire to be "literary" or "poetic" (ie "writing*"), which can lose traction/trust with a reader. in other words, a metaphor is a detour/but that detour better lead to discoveries that alter/ amplify the meaning of what is already there, so that a reader sees you as a servant of possibility rather than someone trying to prove that they are a "writer." One is performative, the other exploratory. In this way, the metaphor acts as a virtual medium, ejecting the text's optical realism into an "elsewhere". But this elsewhere should inform the original upon our return. otherwise the journey would feel like an ejec

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