4 ms·
Some incidental writerly advice: Avoid using the word cancer metaphorically, unless you're deliberately trying to parody the writing style of, say, Adolf Hitler
by mechanical_fish 15y ago
Some incidental writerly advice: Avoid using the word cancer metaphorically, unless you're deliberately trying to parody the writing style of, say, Adolf Hitler. Otherwise it's like trying to use a howitzer to dig postholes in your yard.
I first began to notice the dangerous power of this word when I was working in cancer research. To a cancer researcher, cancer is a thing one deals with all day long, but at a very safe emotional distance. You're used to cancer cells; you study them all the time. You spend quite a lot of time carefully raising them in dishes. You give excited talks about how they work. Still, it's hard not to notice that when you tell a stranger on the street what your research is about, there's this little intake of breath.
And then I grew a bit older, and some friends and I lost relatives to cancer, so we got the chance to actually experience the process from the patient's point of view. (An opportunity which, fortunately, many young people don't get.) And I gradually realized, at a gut level, what all the fuss was about: Cancer is really awful. Dying of it is awful, and not dying of it is also pretty damned awful, because the treatments are painful, often damaging, often disfiguring, and dreadfully uncertain.
Don't use the word unless you mean it. And you probably don't mean it.
- txus 15y agoI didn't need to grow old to watch relatives and friends fighting cancer. I know how serious it is, and I really admire that you're working in that particular field. That said, I used the metaphor on purpose, because of its power, because I think it's a perfectly valid analogy.
- sk5t 15y agoI still think you lack perspective -- maybe standing "back from the fire" a bit. I would never, ever use that word to express anything about a lousy programming topic.
- mechanical_fish 15y agoAgreed, but more importantly: I would never use that word unless I was trying to start a fight. And trying to use the word to stop a fight is just backwards. (Like all rules for writing, this one has exceptions: For example, if it's in the service of a great pun, like: Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon well, that's different.)
- mechanical_fish 15y agoOh, I don't work in cancer research anymore. You may cease to respect or admire me! ;)
- lbrite 15y agoI appreciate your feelings based on your personal experience with this terrible disease. I do however feel this reply and subsequent replies on this topic completely unwarranted. The word cancer has been adopted into the English language to mean an evil condition or thing that spreads destructively. The article makes no reference to the medical condition, nor the star sign, nor the tropics of. I don't care much for this article, but the author has used the word cancer in context without belittling the medical condition and it is unfair of you to imply that he has. Especially since you compare his writing style to one of the most despot genocidal maniacs of our time.
- knowtheory 15y agoI don't think you appreciate what mechanical_fish was trying to communicate. First off, the comparison to Hitler is not hyperbole or misapplied metaphor. Hitler literally compared the Jews to cancer, please see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233707/Hitlers-hatred-Jews-driven-belief-stole-victory-Germany-WWI.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233707/Hitlers-hatr... Second, it's not clear to me that you do appreciate mechanical_fish's feelings. His point is that cancer is an outsized, heavy word, and regardless of the author's intent, the word has connotations that neither you nor the author can shake loose from the word.
- txus 15y agoI chose that word on purpose because of both its semantic and emotional power. Besides, I'm pretty happy that all the critics have been focused on either using the term "cancer" or the swearing at the end, so I guess my points are valid to almost everyone, and you just didn't like the way I expressed them. That sound ok.