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September 2022

Metaphors We Live By

  • Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?

To me, the most outdated example was “Rational is up; Emotional is down”. I don’t think people really talk in those terms as much, and as a society, we are becoming increasingly receptive to and accepting of people’s emotions and emotional wellbeing. Rational is up implies that being rational is somehow better, and I’m not sure that that is always the accepted case anymore. 

I definitely do unconsciously think of most thinks in the same metaphorical systems shown by Lakoff and Johnson. The arguments as battle one is especially resonates with me since I grew up in a household of lawyers and arguments were definitely seen as battles. I think it’s a flawed approach though since (ideally) the goal of an argument is to come to a mutual understanding, having different opinions is okay.

 

  • Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?

Maybe one is like solid is down airy/floaty (can’t think of another word) is up. “She’s light on her feet” vs “Sink like a stone”. Or “Head in the clouds” vs “Head in the ground”. This would probably derive from he fact that the solid things drop to the ground and light things float. 

 

  • What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?

I wouldn’t say that my topic necissarily has an apparent metaphoric system, but certainly a landfill can be a metaphor for a lot of things. Examples: “This place is a dump”, “They were dumping all of their problems onto me”, “I dumped them”.

Reading response – Metaphor

  • Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?

 

One example I found different from the metaphorical system I use is argument. To a certain extent, argument can be related to war, but in Chinese, the concept of argument emphasizes more on the idea of “exchange”. Winning is the goal of an argument, but the process is not the same as war. In a war, you kill people. The more powerful you are, more people you kill, and in the end, winning the war. But that not the same with argument. When you argue with others, you are exchanging thoughts and ideas, instead of killing ideas. You win an argument not by eliminating other’s ideas with power, but by convincing others to understand and agree with your point.

 

  • Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?

 

In Chinese, there is a type of phrase called “Chengyu”, a kind of idiom that all made up of four characters. Each of these idioms has an apparent meaning and a metaphoric meaning, which relates to a story in the history. As time passes, the meanings of some idioms are understood and used differently from its origin. For example, there is a phrase “kong xue lai feng” (空穴来风), the apparent meaning is “wind blowing from an empty cave”. Its original metaphorical explanation is that for wind to blow through, there needs to be a cave or a hole, meaning that there needs to be reasons for rumors to get spread. In nowadays, this idiom is used in a different way, meaning information that has no basis, since the wind is coming from an “empty” cave. in this idiom, information is compared with wind, they both flow from place to place. However, our understanding of this idiom changes. Before people believed that there is always a reason for information to be passed on. But nowadays, with internet and social media, too much information is transferred every day, too much information coming from nowhere. Under this situation, people started to change the use and understanding of this idiom.

 

  • What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?

 

I would use the metaphor “planation is colony” to discuss my topic. In fact, colony is a actual metaphoric meaning of planation in the dictionary. I think the word colony is a good representation of plantation, they have a lot in common. In a colony, people occupy an area of land that are not owned by them; while in planation, people occupy a land that originally belongs to other animals and living things. People gain profit in a colony by gathering things and resources; in planation, people also gain profits by harvesting fruits from the cash crops. I think that’s a useful metaphor for describing planation.

Form for Gardens Project

I will be making a map of sorts for exploring my topic, and an accompanying exploration kit.

I will be focusing on the plant life — wildflowers, trees, etc — that are found in and around Chicago. A map helps people navigate, explore, find things, locate themselves and other things, orient oneself, and capture a moment in time. Some maps include transportation routes, trade routes, and points of interest. Mappe mundi, a form of medieval map, also include history, mythology, different animals/species/peoples, and are not terribly focused on literal locating of things.

I will be leaning into the navigating, exploration, and orientation aspect. I want to make a map that might help someone orient themselves in the world of the diverse plant species that surround them. I’d like to help them explore these plants, become interested in them in order to build appreciation, and ultimately care enough to help protect them.

In making this map, I will be  subverting the focus on precise location and finding things. I don’t want people to be able to use it to specifically locate anything, I would like them to be exploring instead. Instead of focusing on the more typical built environment or on humans’ points of interest, I want to focus on non-human elements. I am not sure yet what metaphors I will be employing.

In making this map, I will need to do some exploring myself. I will put together a “kit” for this exploration and will document that as part of my project.

Interview: Wonderland Project

** Due to scheduling gymnastics, I will be conducting my interview on Tuesday, September 27th at 7pm, and will update this post with a summary when it is complete **

Interview subject: Natalie Evans, who is working on the Wonderland Community Project near Woodstock, IL

Stated goals of Wonderland:

  • Building a large scale mutual aid food supply where we can feed 100 families, hopefully in 5 years time.
  • Land restoration: removing invasive species, replanting native spices and reestablishing lost ecosystems.
  • Creating ecological wealth for future generations.
  • Exploring ways to give land back to local Indigenous people.
  • Helping people feel connected to the land and providing a space for people to be outdoors, especially people that don’t have easy or safe access to being in “nature”.
  • Moving slowly, working in collaboration with each other and the land.
Questions for Natalie:
What led you to starting Wonderland? What drew you down this path?
What were some of the ways that you prepared for this project? Some of the hurdles?
How did you choose the location for Wonderland?
I love all of the goals that you shared for your project. Do you consider any to be more important than any others? How do you balance them?
If someone else was interested in starting down this path, what advice would you give them? What would their first steps be?
What are ways that people could serve similar goals if they don’t have access to large tracts of land?
Natalie’s journey toward her project began in earnest roughly a decade ago when she turned to the outdoors for comfort during some stressful moments for her family. At that time, she took many nature walks and started to study urban foraging — looking for edible food in and around Chicago. After finding a community of like-minded individuals, she joined a group of 6 families, 9 adults and 16 kids, to purchase a large chunk of land about an hour from downtown Chicago. The group’s plan is to work with the land to provide food for local families, and safe space for humans of all types (with an explicit focus on people in the queer community) to enjoy being outdoors. They are also focusing on sustainable growing — removing invasive species and replanting native species.
The practical details are not terribly glamorous, but it was clear how much Natalie loved the work. From a human side, they are hoping to build a comfortable composting bathroom facility in the next year. From a plant side, they are hard at work removing honeysuckle, buckthorn, and oriental bittersweet. They are planting oaks, milkweed, onions, bee balm, bundle flowers, ramps, sunflowers, and wood nettles.
She also pointed me toward a few people to do more research into, surrounding the controversy of rewilding: Farmer Rishi, Daniel Vitalis, and Peter Michael Bauer, as well as the blog CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt.com.

Interview: Salt

I talked about salt with an endocrinologist.

She said the recommended salt intake in China’s dietary guidelines had been reduced from 6g to 5g. Then I asked her if she would be worried if the dish was too salty. She replied with a smile: “No, the excess salt will be excreted by the body.” We started the conversation casually, but it still gave me a lot of interesting knowledge.

 

In a doctor’s view, salt is not only sodium chloride but also potassium chloride. Sodium and potassium ions maintain the osmotic pressure of cells. Some juices, such as orange juice and coconut water, are rich in potassium. Usually, eating too much salt will not be a problem because the kidneys excrete excess sodium and potassium. But overeating salt every day can cause cardiovascular disease.

 

A too bland diet can also cause problems. Some elderly diabetics eat too lightly. Without enough salt, as a result, they feel weak and have to go to the hospital. The doctor will adjust the saline composition and concentration according to the patient’s condition. (I didn’t expect a light diet causes issues too.)

 

Foods that are not salty are not necessarily low in salt. A sweet cake may contain more salt than you think. To determine salt content, we can read the NRV (Nutrient Reference Value) on the packaging bag. (I didn’t know 100% on the NRV label means 100g of such food’s nutrient is sufficient.)

 

She mentioned a group of indigenous people named Yanomami in the Amazon rainforest. When she talked about the marker of a condition called Primary Aldosteronism that is not suitable for these indigenous people. (She even showed me a diagram to explain the mechanism, but the only thing I remember is Yanomami.) Their diet is different from modern people’s diet. We intake much more sodium than potassium, but they, on the contrary, intake more potassium. For they live by hunting and don’t eat industry salt. As a result, although the marker is high, they are healthy as the sodium content in their body is low.

 

The relationship between salt and border is not very direct. Maybe the Yanomami part is a little closer. However, the conversation is fun.

Metaphors We Live By

  • Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?

I resonate with Lakoff & Johnson’s linguistic metaphorical systems. In Chinese background, we use metaphor everywhere and it is an important part in Chinese language. We have the same metaphor which is “唇枪舌战” about conversation as battle. To translate, “唇” is lip; “枪” is spear; “舌” is tongue and “战” is battle. It assimilates lip and tongue as weapons, which more vividly display an intense debate. Besides, orientational metaphors are also been used frequently in Chinese language. For example, the most common slogan in Chinese school, “好好学习天天向上”, means study hard and make progress every day. The words “向上” represents going up, which means positive is up, negative is down.

  • Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?

The metaphorical system I commonly use is the “copy” and “paste” operations on computer. For the logic behind this, the word copy means making a same object. On computer, I think the “copy” command’s function is pretty straight forward. It duplicates selected items.  For the paste word, it means stick something to something. On computer, the function of “paste” operation is putting copied items on a selected area. We can easily understand the function of “copy” and “paste” by just looking at the two operation names. I intentionally use the two words in real life context when I see two people have similar appearance or action. 

  • What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?

 

When discussing my “quilting” topic, I would say connection may be the metaphor. For my understanding, connection means the relationship and link between two objects, peoples, communities, etc. The joint between two objects moved from physical one to transparent one(the connection of tradition and modern,  handicraft and mechanization，etc). For the other kinds of metaphors I would use bridge and gap as the metaphors which also demonstrate the connection and disconnection between different groups people, communities and social environment.

SKIN: Fenestra Form Analysis

The form: Pop-up books

Why this form? What are its features (stylistic, experiential)

  • The pop-up book is a non-tech 3-D form of the book that is usually used to show some structures and buildings. I chose this form because my topic, “fenestra,” is about a kind of structure. Part of my goal is to show the structure to everyone directly with no age limitations, language limitations, or knowledge reserved. This pop-up book can perfectly fit my needs. What’s more, I still have the possibility to make it colorful and informative since it still follows the form of a book.

How is this form typically used, and what do you plan to subvert/imitate/utilize?

  • This form is typically used for children and educational functions. Also, it’s mainly used for storytelling or showcasing. I plan to focus on its storytelling part, but I want to tell a story about fenestra that can interest both the children and the adults.

What would change if you tried a different form? What critical lens does the form you’re applying emphasize?

  • I’ve thought about a single-page website, a digital interactive game, or a kind of creative re-use. However, for the first two digital forms, there are hidden age limitations behind it since small kids and elders may don’t know how to surf the Internet. Ecocriticism or the moral lens would be the lens the form I am applying emphasize. However, I am still thinking about this part.

Is there a metaphor well-suited to your form (i.e. cooking with code)? Or, are there other metaphors you might employ?

  • Metaogors might be used:
  1. Underground water system (geology)
  2. emotion regulation (how one individual faces and deals with his/her pressure and other negative emotion)
  3. Reservoirs, Dams, and Flood Releases

Interview documentation and reflection

Last week’s in-class discussion with the cohort really helped me to narrow down the research topic into more specifics.

My assigned keywords “kinship” and “grafting” first went to a broader scope of “human evolution and actions of plants & animal domestication”. At this point in time, my research focuses on the ethics and animal welfare of breeding and husbandry.

In order to include different stakeholders’ perspectives, in the interview, I ask a researcher in correlated industries (my father) and a friend of mine (an experienced pet owner) to be my interviewees. Considering different standpoints of their own, I designed 2 question rundowns according to what I understand about their context.

My father holds the title of a senior veterinarian. He has rich knowledge in both animal nutrition and pharmaceutical practice. My primary goal for interviewing him is to gain some insiders view on animals being used in research experiments. Throughout the interview, he educated me with some basic context of current husbandry and pet industry of China, which really has set every regulation based on human needs (health, cheaper protein, higher profits, etc. ) I asked whether we have specific laws and regulation enacted for animals being used in research. He said no. The reason for asking is that within my own research, I have noticed the passage of the bill”(Laboratory) Animal Welfare Act” in 1966 within the states, the bill was intended to protect cats, dogs, and pet animals from using in research facilities and inhumane treatment.

My second interviewee has three Garfield. One of the Garfield has only 3 legs when born. From my research I learned into order to get a purer breed of a certain kind, breeder or industrialized breeding facilities will force inbreeding. The consequences are, many babies congenitally defect.  Also, female animals will continuously give birth to new babies until they are not able to deliver anymore, which is also another strong factor of defective pets. Though my friend has 3 Garfield, she said that all three are adopted, and was pure coincidence that three of them are all Garfield. She also mentioned that she probably will never purchase a pet for any reason. She wishes adoption in lieu of purchase. 

 

 

 

SKIN: Fenestra – Interview Summary

I‘ve interviewed one non-expert and one expert. The non-expert is a designer, and the expert is a biology Ph.D. from NYUSH.

Interview with a non-expert:

  • I first let him introduce himself and his experience in biology. He is a system designer in the IT area. He likes biology and participated in the school’s biology competition. He gives up studying biology after entering the university because there are too many technical terms that need to be remembered. Then I asked him did he ever heard the word “Fenestra”. As I expected, his answer is no. After explaining what it is in words, I asked about his feelings, thoughts, or any other thing he wants to ask or talk to me about.  He first sympathizes with me having such a topic to work on, then he mentions some similar structures in the cell. He said when he first learned how those small openings can help support the whole body, he is truly shocked and realized each human being is a well-designed system. No matter how small a structure is, it contributes to the whole system subtly. And then he said this reminds him how a city works. Small installations in the cities are not been noticed but the city cannot function without them, like the roadside sewers which help balance the water level.

Interview with an expert。

  • I finally got in touch with her this Friday. The interview with the expert is not finished yet (09/25) due to her time limitation. We just discussed it for about 10 minutes, and we will have a more extended interview in the coming week.  Before the discussion started, I generally explained this course’s background and what I will do. I first asked her: do you know fenestra? And surprisingly, her answer is no. She then started to ask me questions about fenestra. After I showed her the information I researched, she immediately got the general idea of this structure and showed me some biology examples with similar functions. She said she would search for more information before our next meeting, and I also need to look at the examples she brought out to make more interview questions next time.

Metaphors We Live By

Q1: Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?

I think  “Time is money” might be different in some other culture. It is definitely a proper metaphor in modern western culture and also makes sense for people living in China now. However, in some religious countries, for example, Thailand or Bhutan, people values faith more than money. So maybe in their conceptual system, though time is valuable, there could be some other metaphors for time.

In ancient times in China, there are several metaphors for time – e.g: arrow, white horse and water.

 

Q2: Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?

When describing about life, I like to say that “life is a journey”. Because I believe that what really matters in life is to explore and experience. Sometimes, when the context is related to career or learning , I will unintentionally change the metaphorical system and say that “life is like a marathon.” I think the reason behind is that career and learning both implies competition, which makes me unconsciously associate life with marathon.

 

Q3: What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?

Regarding my topic of “Code of Arms”,  I will use identity as the metaphor. “Code of Arms” manifests the identity of the recognition or expectation of a family or institution. Speaking of other kinds of metaphors related to this topic, I think of inheritance and tradition.