The Elegant Variation: UNSUSPECTED COMMONALITIES

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November 21, 2010

UNSUSPECTED COMMONALITIES

I've had my issues with Leon Wieseltier - haven't we all? - but this, I thought, from today's review of the Bellow letters, was excellent:

Metaphor is the juxtaposition of disparate elements of the world in which an unsuspected commonality, an illuminating partial likeness, has been discovered, and the more unlikely the juxtaposition, the greater the consequent sensation of the unifying of the world; and so the range of a writer’s metaphor is a measure of the range of his cognition.

I'll share that one with my students tomorrow night.

I've been quiet the last few days - work on the novel has resumed with real purpose, churning out my own metaphors. I'm bearing down hard on finishing up Part One (there are two parts), and so I will close up shop here a bit early as I travel east for the holidays. But I'll be back around December 1, talking about my latest obsession - Tony Judt's almost unbearably lovely The Memory Chalet. Until then, cook the stuffing outside the turkey, friends.

Posted at 09:52 PM in Literary Letters | Permalink

Comments

That Wieseltier quote may be the clunkiest sentence I've ever read. There has to be a more concise way to say that, and certainly one which uses less than 6 "of"s.

Posted by: GG Gaynor | November 22, 2010 at 06:45 AM

Sorry, GG, I don't agree. I think it's an involved thought, hence the involved sentence, and he expresses it exceedingly well. Wieseltier's never been afraid of long sentences, and some can rumble on, but not this one, in my opinion.

Posted by: TEV | November 22, 2010 at 11:28 AM

This is what I think he was trying to say:

"The art of writing consists in putting two things together that are unlike and that belong together like a horse and cart. Then have we somewhat far more goodly and efficient than either."

Of course, I'm a believer in Emerson.

Posted by: Kit Stolz | November 24, 2010 at 06:57 PM

Wieseltier's definition of metaphor is wack. More often than not metaphor highlights a commonality between both terms of comparison. As in, "Her hair was baby's breath wrapped in honey". Not really juxtaposing wild opposites there. Rather associating things by something they have in common.

Wieseltier also loses me when he says the more jarring the juxtaposition, the more illuminating the effect. Really? What makes that so? Does a metaphor like, 'Her hair was bauxite wrapped in a mouse's liver' isn't a terribly illuminating "juxtaposition". Metaphor is like wit. It can't really be captured or formalized.

Posted by: Niall | November 27, 2010 at 06:14 PM

I have to express my delight at seeing a West Wing clip. It's very rare to see something on television that you've never seen even in movies, but that was true for me with the following three scenes from this show: (1)Bartlet cursing God in Latin in the Cathedral, (2)C.J. holding back tears at the deaths of young girls in the fictional Arab country, and (3) Toby unburdening himself to a young fellow writer.

Posted by: Shelley | November 30, 2010 at 07:53 AM

I don't think the Wieseltier quote is any clunkier than most current writing, but I can't quite admire it as poetry or an involved thought.

It says 'the more disparate the things a writer can unite in metaphor, the more the writer seems to have thought about the world' in fairly plain language. That's fine, but not exciting.

Of course, some metaphors are simply wild, not brilliant. The writer must succeed at uniting things (in the reader's subjective judgement) in order for Wieseltier's rule to apply.

Posted by: James | December 08, 2010 at 03:06 PM

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
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"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 21, 2010

UNSUSPECTED COMMONALITIES

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MY NOVEL

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THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 21, 2010

UNSUSPECTED COMMONALITIES

Comments

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism