[Vision2020] Metaphors, Analogies, and Parallels

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

OK, folks, I'm going to play William Safire for a moment, and if you think 
the following is piddling and pedantic, then you can just go soak your heads.

But the editors of  Lewiston Trib really blew it on the headline of Joan's 
letter today--"Metaphor Loses Credibility." Joan was redefining the 
parallel suggested by Tom Henderson between Christ Church and its 
detractors to the Nazis.  It's definitely not a metaphor, but it's not even 
an analogy.

You can read more about analogical and parallel arguments at 
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/308/308analparal.htm, and I'm sure that Wayne 
and Joe can elaborate or even correct what I've said there.  But suffice it 
to say that analogies compare different things while trying to show a 
similar relationship.  For example, Hindu writers attempt to demonstrate a 
relation between the true self (Atman) and the Godhead (Brahman) as 
analogous to a drop of water in the ocean.  The Nazis and the Weimar 
government are persons and institutions just as the players in Moscow are, 
so the things compared are "parallel" not "analogous."

I don't how many times I've heard or read "analogy" when the correct term 
should be "parallel."  OK, I have that off my chest and I will not retreat 
to my Ivory Tower, but at least I will have William Safire to commiserate with.

Nick Gier