Topical Guide 968
Mark Dorset
Memoirs
Memory
Metaphors and Similes
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 31:
“Writing a memoir,” I said, “is a lot like repairing a dilapidated dock. . . . You see that the pilings — the uprights — are not in very good condition, right? . . . And you see that there are crosspieces that tie the pilings together so that the weak ones are strengthened by association with the strong ones? . . . Our problem is that some of the crosspieces that ought to be there are there, but some are missing, and some are rotten, and some are just dangling there, connected to nothing. . . . You’re going to pry those useless old pieces off and replace them with these nice solid timbers I’ve got here.” I handed him one.
“Are you sure this has instructional value?” he asked, shivering.
“Far more than the recommended daily allotment,” I said.
It’s a metaphor!
See also:
Memoirs: Memories, Inventions, Memoirs with Inventions, Sawdust TG 24; Motives for: L’Esprit de L’Escalier TG 73; Not Excluding the Life of the Mind TG 935
Memory TG 57, TG 125, TG 574, TG 583; Memory, Faulty: Causes of, Results of TG 34, TG 133; Memory, Remembering, Forgetting, and the Search for Lost Time TG 22; Memory, Faulty, Causes of Distortion in TG 97; Memories: Relationships Among; Relationships to Present Perceptions TG 463; Selective TG 621; Memory: Prompt, Cue, Stimulus, or Catalyst for TG 792, TG 850; Memories: Conflicting TG 873
Mercenaria mercenaria, Sizes of TG 32; Mercenaria mercenaria, Uses of TG 32
Metaphors and Similes: Wandering the Streets of a Town TG 626, Clam Chowder TG 777, The River Meander, Meandering TG 783, River’s End, Life’s End TG 783, Developing a Photograph TG 831, Fire TG 866; Hourglass, Life’s passage TG 879; Year’s passage, Life’s passage TG 879
Metaphor, Extended TG 55
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