A few nights ago my husband and I watched On Golden Pond. It had been many years since watching it the first time on the big screen in 1981. Neither of remembered much of it at all. We both remembered the best line, when the kid, Billy who is visiting says he likes to cruise chicks and “suck face.” I didn’t remember the loons at the very beginning. A pair of loons calls to one another. Katharine Hepburn says they are calling to them, to her and Henry Fonda who plays Norman the cantakerous old man. She’s Ethel a vivacious older woman married to Norman. I love how both characters are both a bit loony, very much in love and bonded, and opposites in so many ways. All of the relationships in that movie are well done.
The loons are a metaphor. A metaphor for their bond. One dies later on in the movie. Don’t worry, I haven’t given anything away. But it’s another metaphor for their relationships, respectively, to death.
You can watch a summary of the loon lines here. They endear you to all the characters. A flock of loons, I learned, is called an asylum.
I’m also reading James by Percival Everett. This book is so genius. If you haven’t read any Percival Everett you should. American Fiction, the novel that the movie was based on is his. The use of metaphor in this most recent novel is wonderfully done because it’s very meta to the metaphor. And, very much pointed out as metaphor. Which, I suppose, is really irony and not just metaphor. Meta metaphor. I don’t know that for certain because I am pretty sure Percival is a smarter writer than I am. I aspire to be that brilliant and funny at the same time. You have to read the book to get the gist of the meta metaphor. It truly can’t be explained. And if I do try, then I become one of the ironies he sets up.
My grad school professor and good friend, Sue William Silverman preaches (and I mean that in a good way) about the metaphor. How essential it is in writing. She also has a fabulous book on including metaphor in your writing, Acetylene Torch Songs. I believe in the metaphor. And that’s where this post is headed.
Metaphor. I’d say that’s what divides good and bad prose from one another. It’s so essential for making a good story better. For pulling the reader inside the story with the characters, the setting, the emotional arc. The loons, for example. They set the tone, show us who Norman and Ethel are, and provide tension and suspense as well—just by being loons. Or when Katharine tries to be a loon.
When I think about the story of On Golden Pond without the loons, it would still be the same story, but it would not have the same punch, the same poignancy, the same humor. When I think of James without the metaphor, it makes me smile because I think Percival wanted to point out something that we should know anyway, but perhaps wouldn’t take to heart if he didn’t make it blatant. The story wouldn’t read the same way. Or rather, I wouldn’t be thinking about it and myself as a white person, when I am not reading the book. Who doesn’t love a good book that makes you think about it and your own life even when you aren’t reading it?
What does this have to do with accountability? We should all be accountable to putting metaphor in our stories. It’s a catch-22 though. Metaphor needs to come from your own soul in order to touch someone else’s. We need to be deep inside the story to find the best metaphors. The loons, that is. The different perspectives in a story are not just the characters’ but the readers’. You have to show up to go inside.
Another wonderful teacher of mine at NY State Summer Writers Institute, Mary Gordon used to say, “The physical is your friend.” What a great reminder to always remember to bring the background (loons) into the story and use it to enliven, to deepen, to reach out and grab your reader by the throat.
This isn’t a how-to blog, so read Sue’s book to learn more about how to find your metaphors, but it is an accountability blog, and in that sense I’ll leave you here to remind you to consider metaphors your friend.
A good metaphor lets you bump up against it quietly without really noticing it just slipped something into your pocket when it passed by.
One spot left in the Orcas Retreat. Come see loons on Orcas Island! We will practice metaphors—how to create them for your individual story. And, so much more. We might even get a little loony. Email me with any questions.
One of those synchronistic happenings that makes you shake your head. I enjoyed your entire Pie-d Piper post about metaphors, Amy & how they connect to Accountability (nicely tied together), but the synchronicity is about the Loons, more specifically Kathrine Hepburn and the Loons. For the recently completed Blazing Laptops Write-a-thon (we missed you there), celebrities stopped by in the way of recorded prompts. Here's this one form Katherine Hepburn that was played for the writers. Maybe while you're on retreat in France, you'll have time to listen to it. I can't attach it here, so I'm sending it to you via email.