Metaphor

The comparison of metaphor with a wormhole is interesting and quite striking, particularly as this comparison itself links two seemingly disparate fields...that of language/expression and that of science. However, it is true that everything within human understanding must be contained within the realm of literary expression. So in fact, language itself is the thread that binds human consciouness. Back to the direct consideration of metaphor...perhaps its most useful purpose, in practical terms, is to simplify a concept, or prime it for more holistic comprehension by linking it with, as Professor Moss noted, something more familiar. For example, in daily use, one may notice an especially putrid and foreign smell, but having never experienced the odor before, must relate the current sensation, and more importantly, its interpretation to preestablished molds of meaning; one might say, "inhaling such an odor is like getting bruised in the nose," or "it smells like maggoty fish in the garage on a hot summer day." Since everyone has experienced bruises, and probably smelled rotting fish, such comparisons allow the speaker a taxonomy, provide a matrix in which the experience may be recorded, remembered, and later retrieved and built upon again in relation to another novel experience, creating a chain, or perhaps chains within chains (links within links) of images and meaning.
in addressing the question, can metaphor be reversed, logic and syllogism immediately come to mind. if p is q, then conversely, is p also q? in logic, this is not necessarily true, but when p and q stand for literal figures instead of mathematical ones, the comparison can be nonetheless interesting and maybe even provocative. How about inverting a metaphor? If p is q, then not p is not q. This is like looking at the space outside the system or matrix set up by a metaphor--the negative space? Perhaps this is another bigger metaphor outside of the established one.... Indeed, when a metaphor is created, the number of connections and "bubbling" potential within it is nearly limitless, like Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar. Addressing the question raised in class today, the jar doesn't explode because the seeds of bubbles are infinitesimal. They might not even really be there...kind of like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when Charlie sees his grandparents before they were born floating in negative space. These unborn or rather untapped seedlings of ideas, bubbles lie in a negative space (a black hole?) until someONE sees it or somehow senses it and so makes the seed come to life--makes it branch and blossom like a fractal flower. One person cannot possibly identify all the bubble seeds, so the figurative jar may stay intact.