21 Nov Simile, and the world similes with you

E. M. Forster

Responding to our irritation with the metaphorical overuse of the word “journey,”  Contrarian reader CC points to this recent column by Oliver Burkeman in the UK Guardian. Money quote:

I’ve wondered about marketing a line of fridge magnets bearing the motto “Life is like a fridge magnet,” but while researching this column I found that the clothing company Threadless had beaten me to it, offering a T-shirt that reads “Life is like a box of terrible analogies.” Which only goes to prove the wisdom of another well-worn adage: simile, and the world similes with you.

Contrarian has always been partial to Tom Leher’s line about “sliding down the razor blade of life.” And to E.M. Forster’s formulation in A Room with a View:

Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.