Explaining Difficult Things, page 5

Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction, continued

To some extent, the metaphor is at the opposite end of the communication spectrum from direct exposition. Figure 2.1 shows one way to look at this dichotomy.

Figure 2.1: Description and explanation of concrete details lies at the opposite end of the communication spectrum from the use of metaphors to convey ideas and concepts.

I’ll discuss the uses of metaphor, and how you can become proficient with metaphors, in Chapter 3, "Communicating with Metaphors."

Like poetry, fiction often uses metaphors, and also hides its truths in the shadow of mystery and partial disclosures.

As opposed to poetry, there is usually a great deal of opportunity for direct exposition in a work of fiction such as a novel or a short story. However, there is another wrinkle at issue, and that is that in fiction things are almost always seen from a particular viewpoint, most often that of a character in the work. (This is true even when the fiction is written in third-person.)

So any direct and explicit exposition must be filtered through the perceptions and capabilities of the narrative voice.

Continued next page

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