The Motive for Metaphor

Notes from The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye

Chapter 1 - The Motive for Metaphor

No matter what the language, if you go very far getting an education in that language, you'll end up studying its literature. Every language has its Shakespeare and Milton. Literature (novels, plays and poetry) is an art. It has no direct utilitarian value. So what good is it?

Frye has us imagine that we're shipwrecked on an island. First, we survey the area and note that it's wild and barren of human intelligence. That makes us feel alone and scared. Second, we're curious about the place and we have an opinion about it - we like it, or we don't. Those are intellectual and emotional responses. To express this, we use a specific level of language--lots of nouns and descriptive adjectives. On an emotional level, our opinion tends to focus on what we feel belongs as a part of us, and what we like or want. We want to feel at home, so after our basic needs are met with a shelter and food supply, we start working on our wants to make ourselves more comfortable. We might plant a garden and distinguish between plants--those we want (our crop) and those we don't want (which we perceive as weeds.) At this level, we have things we have to do (find food) and things we choose to do (weed the garden.)

Later, another person is shipwrecked, too, and the two of you marry and start a family. Now you have a society and the place starts taking on the form of civilization with engineered buildings, agriculture, medicine--applied arts and sciences. This requires practical language with lots of verbs and action words. We're adapting our environment to suit us. Animals (beavers, for example) do that, too--we still haven't really gone beyond the level of animals.

What separates us from animals is a conscious awareness that we exist, paired with practical skill. We envision what we want and bring it to reality. But first, we have to see it in our mind. That's the imagination, and it uses a third level of language. This is the language of literature and poetry, and it's less practical.

Art differs from science in this way: science starts with what's there and works outward, trying to make sense of it by discovering its laws, which often brings it into the realm of math, which is abstract and in the realm of the imagination. It goes from the world to the mind. Art goes in the opposite direction. It starts in the mind, in the imagination, and then tries to fit it to the real world. Science seeks to progress, to learn more and more. But art can't progress. Drama will never improve and leave Shakespeare in the dust, poetry will never progress and be better than Dante. Art's masterpieces are timeless and not improvable. And, since art seeks to find meaning and help us find our place in the world, then we can't outgrow our need for it, no matter how much the world evolves and makes progress. We'll always be asking the same questions about why we're here.

Perhaps, somewhere in our mind, we're seeking to return and recapture a sense of belonging, or being united with our environment, identifying with something. Some think of this as a return to the Garden of Eden, or nirvana, or heaven, or some other explanation. Art seeks to free man's spirit from the bondage of time and space.

Writing is either describing the world, or is instructive (practical), or else it's an abstract association with the mind (art). Being abstract and associative, artistic writing (literature) tends to use a lot of suggestive similes and metaphors. But practical writing has to be precise, so it tries to steer clear of vague suggestive clichés.