If could compare the Web to something tangible what would it be? Do you find any metaphor suiting the Web as it is, as it developed and what it might become?
posted by fifigyuri on Jul 20, 2009 - 18 answers

Is there a term for the particular type of metaphor that Martin Luther King Jr. used repeatedly in his "I Have a Dream" speech? [more inside]
posted by Janey Complainy on Jan 15, 2009 - 4 answers

When you're going against traffic, is that bad? Of course not, even though it sounds bad. And if you're going with traffic -- that's bad, even though it sounds good. Confusion is built in. Here's the QX: Years ago I heard a perfect phrase for this. Something like "If we leave at three, traffic's our friend." Maybe that was it. But has anybody ever heard something along these lines. Thx!
posted by Brzht on Jan 4, 2009 - 20 answers

I recently read the short story "Buried Talents" by Richard Matheson (of "I Am Legend" fame (Amazon link). What does it mean? Short summary: a strange man is uncannily successful at beating a carnival game; when he leaves, the man running the game (who had been getting flustered), appears very ill. [more inside]
posted by bangitliketmac on Nov 29, 2008 - 4 answers

Just exactly what does "swing the big-eyed rabbit" (as sung by the Cramps) mean? [more inside]
posted by ostranenie on Apr 21, 2008 - 10 answers

Help me think in terms of programming metaphors. [more inside]
posted by Burhanistan on Jan 23, 2008 - 8 answers

Wolf imagery and depression. References? [more inside]
posted by ZenMasterThis on Nov 30, 2007 - 10 answers

I am searching for examples of The Infinite, or the immeasurably large, in our mythologies and archetypes. I am also interested in the categories of Truth which came out of the emergence of Western, ontological thought. Does the trust in a rationally conceivable reality deny us the infinity of the mythological realm? By rooting ourselves in the present, and denying atemporal mythologies, do we also deny the infinite origins from where we came? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Nov 28, 2007 - 22 answers

What's the difference between a metaphor, allegory, simile, and analogy? [more inside]
posted by Mach3avelli on Sep 27, 2007 - 14 answers

suggest some fun, upbeat, likeable songs that mention specific colours? [more inside]
posted by twistofrhyme on Aug 21, 2007 - 55 answers

I need a word! [more inside]
posted by tabubilgirl on Aug 19, 2007 - 35 answers

What are the origins of the idiom "strangle the monster in the crib"?
posted by commander_cool on Jul 10, 2007 - 7 answers

[Man’s-Journey-to-find-himself-Filter]: I am looking for works of film and fiction that employ the imagery of traversing a difficult path/passageway as a metaphor for man’s inner journey toward connection with his unconscious shadow (in the Jungian sense of the term). [more inside]
posted by numinous on Mar 2, 2007 - 37 answers

I need a metaphor and an analogy for an application of social network theory. [more inside]
posted by k8t on Oct 21, 2006 - 15 answers

What are some good image metaphors for "intelligence"? Lightbulbs, brains, computers, networks.... etc... looking for concepts, suggestions or stock images. [more inside]
posted by skrike on Sep 6, 2006 - 14 answers

The Protagonist: What can you tell me? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jun 8, 2006 - 17 answers

Where can I find more writing about metaphor? I vaguely remember reading something about how, when machines became ubiquitous, people began understanding their lives in terms of machines. I'm looking for that sort of thing. [more inside]
posted by Aghast. on May 19, 2006 - 21 answers

In "What Metaphors Mean" Donald Davidson refers to a critic who called Tolstoy "a great moralizing infant". Who was that critic, and in what work was Tolstoy so called?
posted by kenko on Mar 19, 2006 - 10 answers

MusicFilter: I am looking for songs of any genre that use food as a metaphor for sex. The two songs that I could come up with are Mississippi John Hurt's Candyman and Van Halen's Ice Cream Man. Thanks so much.
posted by captainscared on Aug 22, 2005 - 59 answers

Should metaphor be taken from photography, or should photos only be approached (or critiqued) as realist?
posted by the fire you left me on Apr 1, 2004 - 12 answers