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In this case, I don't think anyone is subconsciously imagining the literal country of Egypt cracking open an ancient tomb, but rather "the people over in Egypt
by sgtnoodle 7y ago
In this case, I don't think anyone is subconsciously imagining the literal country of Egypt cracking open an ancient tomb, but rather "the people over in Egypt who do that sort of thing". There's artistic expression in figurative speech and I think it enhances average intelligence of the population by existing. A common trope in distopian fiction is banning of figurative speech as a form of fascist mind control.
- dmos62 7y ago> I don't think anyone is subconsciously imagining I think it's trivial to argue that there's a lot of occasions where someone mislaid frustration with, for example, a whole nation (or religion or ethnicity, etc. etc.), because of an act that was perpetrated by a subset of that group. So the idea that synecdoches are problematic can't be discarded so easily. I liked your point about figurative speech in dystopian fiction. China's banned Winnie the Pooh recently (synecdoche!), because there was a meme going around comparing Winnie the Pooh with Xi Jinping; so you don't even need to turn to dystopian fiction for dystopian examples of this. However, these anecdotes, in a way, also support the point that language precision and figurative language are potent vehicles for discourse, similarly to how humor can be used to sneak in "offensive" speech (as much as I dislike the term), shrugging off criticism with "it's just a joke".
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]