It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! This is one of Shakespeare's most famous lines and one of the most well-known metaphors in literature. But metaphor is much more than a mere literary device employed by love-struck poets when they refer to their girlfriends as interstellar masses of incandescent gas. It is also intensely yet inconspicuously present in everything from ordinary conversation and commercial messaging to news reports and political speeches. Metaphor is at work in all fields of human endeavor, including economics, business, science, and psychology. In "I Is an Other", James Geary takes readers from Aristotle's investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Along the way, he demonstrates how metaphor affects financial decision making, how metaphor lurks behind effective advertisements, how metaphor inspires learning and discovery, and how metaphor can be used as a tool to achieve emotional insight and psychological change. Geary also explores how a life without metaphor, as experienced by some people with autism spectrum disorders, significantly changes the way a person interacts with the world. As Geary demonstrates, metaphor has leaped off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of our stream of consciousness. Witty, persuasive, and original, "I Is an Other" showcases how a simple way with words, which in the past was considered a tool only for poets, is really a driving force in our society. This book will open readers' eyes to the secret life of metaphor and its role in swinging elections, moving markets, and powerfully influencing daily life.
I Is an Other
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"This book is for everyone interested in the subtle operations of language and thought...."I is an Other" is one of those 'must-read' books for this year, for any year. It deserves a wide audience, and it will find one."--Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Middlebury College and author of "Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America"
About the Author
James Geary is the author of Geary's Guide to the World's Greatest Aphorists and the New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best up to date investigation on wide ranging influence of metaphor in everyday life
12 May 2012
By L. Farrell
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
What a wonderful book!! Brilliant investigation into the science, psychology and hidden world of metaphor in politics, media, therapy, advertising and common usage. The book 'pumps blood' back into the imagistic life of language whilst covering the latest research. I bought the Kindle edition and the notes are accessible to the main text by a quick cursor click. A must for anyone fascinated by metaphor, etymology, psychology and human language and communication.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is the best introduction to recent developments in the field of metaphor I've read. Although it's written for the intelligent lay person, I know of several University lecturers who are going to recommend it to their students as a primer. Geary's whistle stop tour of the role metaphor plays in the most important areas of our lives is well-researched with plenty of examples and anecdotes of scientific, commercial and personal interest. With Geary's background as a former editor of Time Europe you know it is well-written. As a psychotherapist who focusses on client-generated metaphors I shall be buying this book for many of my family and friends so they finally have some idea of why metaphor matters.
Penny Tompkins, co-author Metaphors in Mind: Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling
Penny Tompkins, co-author Metaphors in Mind: Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Robert Morris
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Sometimes especially helpful information about a book's purposes and structure is provided near its conclusion and that is certainly true of this one as James Geary cites, in the final chapter, what Hart Crane characterizes as "the logic of metaphor" which Geary believes is the logic of human lives. "Metaphor impinges on everything, allowing us - poets and non-poets alike - to experience and think about the world in fluid, unusual ways. Metaphor is the bridge we fling between the utterly strange and the utterly familiar, between dice and drowned men's bones, between I and an other." (Page 226). The book's title refers to Arthur Rimbaud's summary explanation of his working method, "I is an other." Geary views it as Metaphor's defining maxim, its secret formula, and its principal equation" and wrote this book in which he explains how and why metaphors are explicit comparisons of perceived realities.
Here in Dallas, there is a Farmer's Market near the downtown area at which several merchants offer slices of fresh fruit as sample. In that spirit, I now offer a representative selection of brief excerpts from the narrative that suggest the thrust and flavor of Geary's thinking.
o Metaphor "is at work in all fields of human endeavor, from economic and advertising, to politics and business, to science and psychology...Metaphorical thinking -- our instinct not just for describing but for [begin italics] comprehending [end italics] one thing in terms of another, for equating I with an other -- shapes our view of the world, and is essential to how we communicate, learn, discover, and invent. Metaphor is a way of thought long before it is a way with words.... Read more ›
Here in Dallas, there is a Farmer's Market near the downtown area at which several merchants offer slices of fresh fruit as sample. In that spirit, I now offer a representative selection of brief excerpts from the narrative that suggest the thrust and flavor of Geary's thinking.
o Metaphor "is at work in all fields of human endeavor, from economic and advertising, to politics and business, to science and psychology...Metaphorical thinking -- our instinct not just for describing but for [begin italics] comprehending [end italics] one thing in terms of another, for equating I with an other -- shapes our view of the world, and is essential to how we communicate, learn, discover, and invent. Metaphor is a way of thought long before it is a way with words.... Read more ›
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very enjoyable book with a simple but profound insight into the nature of human understanding. I would highly recommend it.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The french poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891) became famous for his brilliant ability to create worlds saturated with pictures inspired by Baudelaire. His equation "I = Other" became a manifesto for metaphor and more than 100 years later the title of this remarcable book by James Geary (HarperCollins Publishers 2011). Metaphor is not only a fundamental tool in the exercise of language, it is also an essential source of language. Metaphor, however, often do not function, because the advantages and side effects are not really understood.
For those interested in the most dangerous weapon in the world - the language - it is a must to botanize in the nature of metaphor, and to develop a critical approach to the ligamen - i.e. the connection between the source and the target of metaphor - to understand its creative forces and to be aware of its seductive and treacherous potentials. The ambiguous nature of metaphor is illustrated by using a conceptual metaphor, e.g. metaphor is a lens that clarifies and distorts (p. 147). The topping consists of numerous very illustrating examples. It is real fun to read this book!
Per Vagn-Hansen (DK)
For those interested in the most dangerous weapon in the world - the language - it is a must to botanize in the nature of metaphor, and to develop a critical approach to the ligamen - i.e. the connection between the source and the target of metaphor - to understand its creative forces and to be aware of its seductive and treacherous potentials. The ambiguous nature of metaphor is illustrated by using a conceptual metaphor, e.g. metaphor is a lens that clarifies and distorts (p. 147). The topping consists of numerous very illustrating examples. It is real fun to read this book!
Per Vagn-Hansen (DK)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Ken Way
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
James Geary's book is a fabulous treatise on the world of metaphor. To be honest I've only just received the book - scanning the contents and reading 'odd' paragraphs here and there, but it is evident that Geary's style is easy to read and it's written with warm wit. (He'd probably have something to say about his wit being warm too!). It has obvious links with Clean Language and I particularly like the fact that he examines metaphor cross-culturally. I can't wait to read it properly! I have bought several books on metaphor over the years (The Magic of Metaphor and More Magic of Metaphor by Nick Owen; Metaphors we live by - George Lakoff & Mark Johnson; The Power of Metaphor by Michael Berman & David Brown; Therapeutic Metaphors by David Gordon; Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds by Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees) - and this is certainly the most readable. If I had one criticism it is the title of the book - I'd heard of the book before but the title put me off. Geary does explain where it comes from (the poet Arthur Rimbaud) but I can't help thinking he (or the publishers) could have devised a more compelling version. I do think Geary achieves what it says on the inside cover: "Metaphor has leaped off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of our stream of consciousness."
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