Summary of Metaphors We Live By:
In the reading Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, the authors demonstrate how metaphors are not only used in write, but also through our words and every action. According to the reading, “most of our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature,” so in a sense, conceptual metaphor had been something we’ve had in our subconscious long before we intentional try to apply metaphors to our writing. Two metaphorical examples were used to help us better understand the idea of metaphor in nature: Argument is War and Time is Money. Within these examples, the author gives us a bunch of phrases commonly used in reference to the ideas of argument or time. Metaphorically, we think of arguments as a verbal battle like in war, using terms such as attack, defend, winning, losing, advantage, or disadvantage. Likewise, we’ve considered time a limited resource and valuable commodity and thus have commonly used words describing physical items to describe our experience with time. For example, words like spent, wasted, budgeted, cost, running out, or barrow have been used to describe a person’s condition with time in each instance. Because our conceptual system is metaphorically structured, we often speak or act metaphorically without knowing it. While metaphors can be used to keep us focused on the situation at hand, it “can keep us on focusing on other aspects of the concept that are inconsistent with that metaphor.” For example, while Argument is War, we wouldn’t consider that our opposing size is giving us valuable time while arguing in an effort to reach an understanding because it isn’t consistent with the metaphor at hand.
Response:
I find it this idea that we live a life of metaphors every day very interesting. As said in the reading, because it is rooted in our conceptual system, we do it subconsciously, it amazes me that we speak, act, and communicate with metaphors constantly throughout the day. One question that is raised for me is if the use of metaphors and the frequency that it is used affects a person’s creativity and if creativity has a greater influence on the use of metaphors or the other way around.
Summary of The Egg and The Sperm:
In the reading “The Egg and The Sperm: How science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles” by Emily Martin, a strong biased is formed with the male sperm as superior and stronger in many ways, while the female egg is weak and inferior. Throughout the text, positive words and metaphors are used to describe the sperm as a hero saving the egg which is described in connotative words. The female reproductive cycle is negatively described as wasteful and destructive while the male reproductive cycle is praised. It is believed that based on this biased stereotype, it affected science in human biology. I find the bases of the arguments in this reading very hypocritical considering males “waste” far more sperm than females do with eggs. In either case, I believe that the article and its ideas were unrealistic.