Metaphors are our way of losing ourselves in semblances or treading water in a sea of seeming.
Interpretation
Metaphors help us navigate complex ideas and emotions, but can also lead to confusion or detachment from reality.
In this quote, Roberto Bolano suggests that metaphors serve as tools for understanding the world around us by creating connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. However, he warns that relying too heavily on these figurative expressions can result in a disconnection from the true nature of reality, leading us to merely 'tread water' rather than engage deeply with life.
In practice
In a speech about creativity, one might use this quote to emphasize the power of language in shaping our perceptions.
Coincidence obeys no laws and if it does we don't know what they are. Coincidence, if you'll permit me the simile, is like the manifestation of God at every moment on our planet. A senseless God making senseless gestures at his senseless creatures. In that hurricane, in that osseous implosion, we find communion.
The sky, at sunset, looked like a carnivorous flower.
I'd obviously never heard of the group, but my ignorance in literary matters is to blame for that (every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me).
Every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me.
Bright colours in the west, giant butterflies dancing as night crept like a cripple toward the east.
Being alone makes us stronger. Thatβs the honest truth. But itβs cold comfort, since even if I wanted company no one will come near me anymore.
The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law.
Temptation said that we all dream of committing crimes, but that only the unbalanced make that macabre idea a reality.
Evolution is gaining the psychic zones of the world... life, being and ascent of consciousness, could not continue to advance indefinitely along its line without transforming itself in depth. The being who is the object of his own reflection, in consequence, of that very doubling back upon himself becomes in a flash able to raise himself to a new sphere.
An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
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