Get Your Metaphors Right Department

 

From Northrup Frye:

 

"Psalm 148, in the fourth verse: "Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens."

Well, it's a matter of common observation that the rain clouds are below the heavens. And the implication of there being water above, or behind the windows of heaven, indicates another dimension of water. So that you are, first of all, presented with a conception of a water of life which is both above and below, and that leads to the suggestion that the water of life that is being talked about here is not quite the same thing as ordinary drinking water. In other words, the suggestion is that man could live in water like a fish: there would be a state of existence in which water does not necessarily drown, in which man can live in water as one of his own elements"

Speaking personally I like a good metaphorical water. Still I don't try to live in it. . This is because drowning is an even worse metaphor. One doesn't have to be Herman Melville to figure that out.

Biblical metaphors differ from the metaphors in poetry in two essential ways: they offer a promise of resolution if one follows a creed--that is, if you change your life in a devotion to spiritual  governance you wil finally resolve the illogic of the figure; and if you in turn undergo that transformation your longing for deeper understanding will be forever satisfied. Hence the image of heavenly water in which mankind can breathe.

Me? I'm too weak for that. I shop at CVS and I buy Odor Eaters and sour ball candies and I like my water to behave like the water I can swim or drink. I don't want my heavens filled with sting rays and anemones. Can you imagine having to spend eternity talking with Flipper? C'mon. I expect some comments on this urgent matter.

 

S.K.

Comments

[TheQueen]

Have you read the Gnsotic Gospels? Evidently some guy is resposnbile for a lot of the cyptic Bible stuff - the beginning about how the water was on the void, and its the same guy from whence we got in the beginning was the word and the word was with god - the guy was high. Possibly a lot of the literal respresentations were the fault of a bad poet.

[terri]

When I was a child I just wanted to be sure I could color in heaven... now I need to worry about underwater crayons.

This IS urgent--let me know when it is worked out.

[Robbin]

Sorry, Steve, I can't agree with you on this one. I'm a scuba diver and for me, heaven (besides having my dogs there - I figure if God can work me breathing underwater he can do the same for them ;-) would be rife with dolphins, stingrays, anemones, manatees, decorator crabs, parrotfish and my all time favorite trunkfish.

Robbin

P.S. to Terri. I'm pretty sure crayons would work, the paper may be a bit more challenging...

[Valerie]

I dreamed the other night that I was underwater and could breathe without difficulty. It was blissful... so I'd be fine with heaven being underwater.