Cloaked metaphor
Gladman describes the moment she was dis-employed from a university, saying that "the reasons for my dismissal were cloaked in a mysterious mystery." This metaphor emphasizes how the reasons were kept from her, which is compared to them being "cloaked," or hidden.
"Light as a rag"
Gladman describes the university president's novel as being "as light as a rag." She enjoys the size of the book and uses this simile to emphasize how small and light it is.
Map metaphor
Gladman explores personal relationships in one essay, commenting on the "sexual entanglements" in a meeting she attended. She then thinks about the people outside of the room, who "also could be added to this map of loving or sexing, who were not here because they didn't belong to this institution yet belonged to this network of lovers." Here, she presents personal relationships as a metaphorical "map."
Rollerblading and writing
Using a simile, Gladman compares her love of writing to her previous love of rollerblading: "I began the day thinking that writing was becoming a thing of the past as my fondness for Rollerblading now was."
