Metaphors and The Icons We Live By

After interpretation of the readings, the metaphorical expressions of concepts can be juxtaposed with the categories of icons. The way that a metaphor holds ambiguous meaning is the same way that an icon holds meaning and representation. I used to think that only words carry meanings, individually also. When a word is combined with another word, the meanings also combine to form a new recognition in the minds of a reader. Metaphors construct how we understand concepts. “Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” (Lakoff and Johnson) What the authors mean here is that as humans, how we think and act is influenced by the metaphorical expressions of concepts. These concepts are the concepts we live by.

We say argument as war as a way of relating the two with their descriptive words. It is a way of explaining or describing a connection with similar verbs and vocabulary. We use the phrase “time is money” to describe how our culture values time and money individually, so they are compared in the descriptions. The explanation of the use of metaphors in our consciousness of our culture that Lakoff and Johnson give brings up the idea that there is an up idea and a down idea. Up ideas include things like happy, conscious, health, life, having control, force, virtue, and rational. Down ideas include things like sad, unconscious, sickness, death, depravity, and emotion. (Lakoff and Johnson) These metaphors are highly similar to the concept of icons. An icon is “any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea”. (McCloud 27) Icons are unrelated to symbols, because symbols are a single category of icon. There are icons of language and pictures. Icons of language are things that we use to represent. Pictures also represent but they look similar instead of being a representation. A picture of a face will look like a face.

McCloud brings up that a cartoon is “a form of amplification through simplification”. (30) I don’t necessarily agree with the fact that simplification, like in a cartoon, amplifies meaning. If I were to do this blog in the form of a comic, I’m not sure that my point would come across very well because there isn’t much depth to it. The inanimate objects that our identities and awareness would be invested in if it were a cartoon, would not necessarily relay the information laid out in this blog. The Realm of Concept corresponds to our individual identities. The Realm of Senses refers to everything else, which is a huge category. The Realm of Concept is inherently known to people, whereas the Realm of Senses has to be acquired through social learning and practice of culture.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Excerpts from Metaphors We Live By (1980). The Literary Link. Janice E. Patten. 2010. San Jose State University. Web. http://theliterarylink.com/metaphors.html.

McCloud, Scott. “The Vocabulary of Comics.” In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. 24-45.