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General Discussion => Essentially Flyertalk => Topic started by: Kat Kid on February 05, 2014, 11:41:41 AM

Title: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: Kat Kid on February 05, 2014, 11:41:41 AM
When I am trying to explain or describe something to someone that I perceive someone else does not yet understand, sometimes I find it useful to momentarily alter the focus of the discussion.

For instance, if I was attempting to describe to you the wonderfully soft red blanket that I have on my lap, I would expect you possess a full understanding of all the adjectives I would be using. You may well have a similar blanket, or at least have experienced a similar blanket.  So if I were going to describe my experience to you, it would be sufficient to be very direct in a brief description of my experience for us to have a similar understanding.  My expectation is that you would quickly recognize my experience and relate it to your similar experience. 

Now obviously, this system is not perfect because often times people do not share similar experiences.  In that case, I would look for a vehicle to bridge the gap between our understandings (using an analogy). When I am speaking with someone that does not have a similar experience, or has expressed a very different understanding, and I am attempting to describe something on my own terms it can be useful to use a shared experience or a shared understanding of a third phenomena to bridge the gap in understanding.

Do you have some different understanding of the usefulness of analogies?  Maybe you could use one to explain why you don't like them.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: Bloodfart on February 05, 2014, 11:57:25 AM
Literary thread.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: AST on February 05, 2014, 12:19:28 PM
i do not hate them, i actually enjoy them more than i probably should

once you realize that all analogies break down at some point and don't try to push or perceive the analogy past said point, then they become quite useful in literary and social places
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: Unruly on February 05, 2014, 12:20:24 PM
Hating analogies is like hating air.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: 0.42 on February 05, 2014, 12:47:42 PM
this is the japan of threads imo
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: chum1 on February 05, 2014, 12:59:34 PM
I like analogies and think they can be very useful. I don't think we'd have any major disagreements over them. (Though, I tend to think of them of them more as a tool for communicating objective ideas, knowable independent of experience.)

In the other thread, when I said "how do analogies work," I was attempting to mock people for shamelessly demonstrating how horribly they'd failed to grasp the point of your analogies. Then, later, I expanded a tiny bit because what they were doing reminded me of a rhetorical tactic (or perhaps mere obtuseness) in which people loudly focus on the dissimilar aspects of analogues while ignoring the similar aspects that they're actually being asked to consider.

It's like, maybe I see a convicted murderer and say, "that looks like Martin Luther King, Jr." Then, someone gets all bent out of shape, screaming that my comparison sucks because one is a saint and the other a miscreant. But all I really wanted to say was that they have similar facial features.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: bubbles4ksu on February 05, 2014, 01:10:26 PM
i don't know if i'm disappointed or relieved that chum didn't drag this one out.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: Kat Kid on February 05, 2014, 01:11:55 PM
What a relief.  A burden has been lifted.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: bubbles4ksu on February 05, 2014, 01:17:29 PM
What a relief.  A burden has been lifted.
ok then, me too.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: sys on February 05, 2014, 02:27:03 PM
chum1 may be lying.  i'd like more evidence that he likes analogies.
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: chum1 on May 30, 2014, 11:55:55 AM
This is the type of stuff I don't like.  It seems to happen a lot and these are both from the past two days.  If these analogies don't work, it's not due to the degree of the comparison, which is why MANY seem to dismiss them.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/29/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/gwyneth-paltrow-war-online-comments/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643801/I-feel-raped-Outrage-Oscar-winner-Charlize-Theron-compares-press-intrusion-rape-interview-journalist-promote-new-film.html
Title: Re: chum1: Why do you hate analogies?
Post by: chum1 on June 14, 2014, 08:44:32 AM
More of the same.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24587429/ncaa-compares-tonya-harding-to-johnny-manziel-at-ed-obannon-trial