Seen Avatar yet? If you live in China, your opportunity to do so has ended. Some say it's because the story is too reminiscent of Tibet's relationship with China. Others, that it depicts relations between Chinese citizens and the state. Either way, after making waves at the box office, the film has been pulled there.

Did James Cameron intend to create a potent metaphor relevant to China? I doubt it. And that points to something very important about metaphors: you have no idea what effect they're going to have.

Which will upset some NLPers convinced that they can work wonders with words. And Cameron's not the only person to inadvertently cause a reaction with audiences. Interviewed recently in The Daily Telegraph, writer Tom Stoppard has this to say:

"The more doors there are for you to open, the better the play. Take Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. If the metaphor had been specific, the play would not have had the freedom to go where it wanted. Some students don’t see it as a metaphor but a puzzle to which I have the answer, and if only I would impart it they would get an alpha."

All of which leads me to ask: what use are metaphors, and what use can you put them to, and is it possible to craft one that will achieve a goal or is stuff* just too complex for that to be possible?

* you know: life and language and shit.

adrian r wrote:

Did James Cameron intend to create a potent metaphor relevant to China? I doubt it. And that points to something very important about metaphors: you have no idea what effect they're going to have.

I agree! This is also the problem with so-called unconscious installation, which, in practice, is more or less the same thing: You don't know what, exactly, is going to get installed. Take, for instance, this example from http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/nlpfax19.htm:

Boy: "Why can't I have a new bike?"

Father "Because it's a waste of money."

Boy: "Why is it a waste of money?

Father "Because it's a waste of money buying you a brand new bike just so you can wreck it."

Boy: "But I wouldn't wreck it. Why would I want to wreck it?

Father "Lets be honest, Derek, there's no way you're going to be able to be able to ride a bike the moment you get on one. You're bound to have a few crashes before you get the hang of it. So a secondhand bike will be just the thing until you've learnt to ride properly."

What do you think is unconsciously installed in the boy there by the father? According to the author, it's basically, "If you want a new bike you've first got to wreck a secondhand one." That's not what I got. I got, "If you want a new bike, you've first got to learn to ride a bike without crashing." Were I trying to game the system, I'd ride one of the test models at the store for a few seconds without crashing and submit that as proof. I certainly wouldn't purposely crash as proof--that'd hurt!

I guess some may claim that, once you've "calibrated" to a particular person, you can predict what kind of effect a particular metaphor will have on them. I wonder how many people actually do that, and to what degree it even can be done.

adrian r wrote:

All of which leads me to ask: what use are metaphors, and what use can you put them to, and is it possible to craft one that will achieve a goal or is stuff* just too complex for that to be possible?

* you know: life and language and shit.

There's more to a good metaphor than spinning a loosely related yarn or 'irrelevant' story. The structure of a metaphor can relate very precisely, in a multitude of different ways, to the structure of someone's experience - but only if you know the structure of that experience. I don't have sufficient experience of weaving masterful metaphors to offer up convincing examples of how powerful they can be. Non the less I remain convinced they can be powerful when strutured and delivered properly.

Chris Johnson wrote:

I guess some may claim that, once you've "calibrated" to a particular person, you can predict what kind of effect a particular metaphor will have on them. I wonder how many people actually do that, and to what degree it even can be done.

what do you think these poeple would suggest you calibrate ?

Iflanguage is a metaphor for experience then what does a metaphor do? Is experience something that another observer might use to fill in the gaps based upon their own experience? You can present opium for the masses or tailor it to person you are talking to - depends for me whether you have an outcome in mind for the/they person/s. I'm kind of thinking how much requisite variety can a metaphor carry?

What if your outcome is to become President? At that point, using deliciously vague metaphors such as 'a thousand points of light', coined by Peggy Noonan and used frequently in Bush speeches, is entirely apt. The phrase is meaningless, but makes pretty pictures in your head that make you feel nice. Job done, without troublesome policy commitments.

adrian r wrote:

What if your outcome is to become President? At that point, using deliciously vague metaphors such as 'a thousand points of light', coined by Peggy Noonan and used frequently in Bush speeches, is entirely apt. The phrase is meaningless, but makes pretty pictures in your head that make you feel nice. Job done, without troublesome policy commitments.

That was pretty meaningless to me, and therefore made no pretty pictures.

Show a Tuareg who has never been to a city a picture of a tap and see what it means to them.
Show the same Tuareg a picture of palm trees in a desert landscape and ask them what it means.

Surely the "thousand points of light" were inserted to confuse and have people start to wonder what the reference meant. A bit like the magicians slieght of hand, make a movement that is meaningless, make a statement that is meaningless, to confuse.

Why would you want to confuse people you want to vote for you???

Think about the phrase 'a thousand points of light'. Odds are, it makes a big twinkly picture. And people like that kind of stuff -- it's why women buy things with sequins on them, why special effects for magic (in fantasy films) and energy (in science fiction films) are often done using sparkly light.

Nice initial question(s) Adrian,

That trinity and friend at the end of your initial post balance nicely with the trinity and friend in the title... was this by intention or fortuitous correlation? if so, Bravo!

I find fortuitous correlation to be a useful tool when working with internalized patterns indirectly, whether intentioned or discovered...

Which leads me to ask: By what mechanism are metaphors possible, how does the brain enable them to exist, and is it possible to use an understanding of that to alter a brain's configuration, or is this just about telling stories?

Fortuitous correlation accounts for whatever patterns you picked up on.

And yes, you are right to connect this wibbly talk of stories to brain functioning, since of course the two connect. I know that Broca's area in the brain is important to the comprehension of language, but don't know enough to say anything of value.