Week 4: Brechin/Snyder Metaphor Expansion

DUE BY SUNDAY AT MIDNIGHT

In "Water Mains and Bloodlines" Brechin is drawing on the metahpor of dynasty.

Look at the last paragraph on p. 115-116: "Whatever his means..."

Identify at last three techinques that Brechin uses to build on the metaphor.
(I.e. how does he make his definition of what is related to dynasty convincing, and how does he explain its relevance to us).

Look back at the posts from last week and see if you can expand on a metaphor that has been made (on purpose or accidentally) by yourself or others.

***

EXAMPLE:

Lilja's commentary on Ryan's blog is a good example of identifying an implicit metahpor:

"Lilja said...
Ryan/Cemeteries Underfoot

I was quite surprised by the discoveries that you made in your research. The library built upon the site of a cemetery is a fascinating metaphor for imperialism as well as capitalism because it is a city founded (literally) upon the deaths of thousands of people and at the expense of many lower class citizens (which I can only assume were the people buried in that cemetery). The fact that there is specifically a library on top of the cemetery also brings to my mind an image of words on top of bones, and knowledge on top of death. To the imperialists, knowledge was power...."


The next step: What other facts would the identification of a metahpor like this ask you to look for? Try looking for one fact that seems unrelated (except via metaphor) and tell us the results.

[Note how the metahpor prompts Lilja to look for the fact about who is buried in the cemetary. It might also prompt one to look at the rhetoric used around building the library...as well as around the quite controversial builidng of the new one...]


OR

Look at the metahpor being constructed in Gary Snyder's "Smokey the Bear Sutra" (Snyder 25). Explain one current event using only terms and logics that can be found in the Smokey Bear Sutra.

Week 3: Responses to classmates' work on Monuments as Masks Brechin/Brautigan

Due by Wednesday at 8am.