Interesting. I consider myself a "generous audience" in general. Quick to laugh, willing to suspend disbelief, eager to listen. I wonder if there is a correlati

Interesting. I consider myself a "generous audience" in general. Quick to laugh, willing to suspend disbelief, eager to listen. I wonder if there is a correlation between open-mindedness of the listener/reader and the effectiveness of extended analogy. I can see your point, that if you try to "steal" the analogy (in the Picassian sense of the word), the analogy could become more distracting than helpful. If you take it for what it is and try to focus on the author's or speaker's vision, they probably work much better.