16 April

On average we use a metaphor every 10-15 seconds, when speaking. Why? I reckon because nothing can be defined without reference to something that it's 'like'. It's why we have dictionaries, for example, definitions of words tell us other words that the word we're looking up is most like. Dictionaries are full of metaphors. Our own identity is the same. Nothing can be defined, including ourselves, without reference to the relationships it has with other things. James Geary (see him speak below) wrote a book called "I is an Other", which covers similar themes. The phrase I is an Other comes from the poet Arthur Rimbaud: "I is another. If the brass wakes the trumpet, it’s not its fault. That’s obvious to me: I witness the unfolding of my own thought: I watch it, I hear it: I make a stroke with the bow: the symphony begins in the depths, or springs with a bound onto the stage. If the old imbeciles hadn’t discovered only the false significance of Self, we wouldn’t have to now sweep away those millions of skeletons which have been piling up the products of their one-eyed intellect since time immemorial, and claiming themselves to be their authors!”