349. Unexpected Metaphors

A text that makes a clear argument seems to function on a single level. This is the level of reason, where we are supposed to be convinced of the truth of the argument by the evidence and reasoning that are provided. At a glance, the text looks straightforward: there is an idea or position that is explicitly stated and reasons that support and defend it.

But it is in precisely this kind of text that metaphor can silently operate. Our focus on the reasoning distracts us from the possibility that something else might be happening, causing us to miss what the text is doing. As we read, the text’s metaphors work on us in ways we do not immediately perceive. In the end, it is not the arguments or conclusions that affect us most but something else entirely.

What we are given is difficult to put into words because what metaphor ultimately supplies is outside the scope of language. But it is nonetheless transformative. What we absorb tends to be a new way of being or seeing — an alternative orientation towards the world or the self. It is this new form of life that can be the text’s most powerful force, dominating even the reasons and evidence that provide its superficial power.

The text’s form of life cannot escape our attention even though it might evade our conscious perception. It is implicit in every word, in every sentence, in the way the text is arranged and presented. While it might go unnoticed, we still experience it, and the experience changes us. Our thoughts quietly begin to follow its lines as we move through the text.

What we discover through our exposure to this other form of life is that there might, in fact, be another way of seeing things, and that we might, in fact, be capable of living differently. This realization, which comes much later, long after we’ve finished reading, also reveals something of the power of metaphor.