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.
I've had the most untraumatic life a human being can have. But I've always been drawn to those who have had far more complicated histories.
If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.
In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is justified in God's name, it's important to repeat that religion can never become a vehicle of hatred, it can never be used in God's name to justify violence.
How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?
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