Trippy with Metaphor
The metaphors and similes (especially the similes) flow fast and furious in these stories. Hardly a page goes by without a handful of examples and the rate of exchange ranges across the spectrum. Sometimes they hit the mark squarely while others are best described as a good try. One example that can applied almost to the experience of reading the book (minus the headache for most, of course):
“There was hallucinogenic music on in the background that sounded like a migraine”
Philosophical Metaphor
Some of the expansive casting of narrative with the literary technique of metaphor is done for the purpose of philosophizing. Lots of philosophical musings framed within figurative imagery through the book, much of it along the lines of this example:
“Vanity is the softest of bedrocks to sink shafts into.”
The Literal Simile
A simile is a metaphorical by definition, of course: a comparison of one thing to another which it is not. Often, however, the comparison skids along the edge of being completely literal. Of course, it all depends on one’s point of reference; one cannot distinguish between literal and metaphor if one is only familiar with one of the two things being compared:
“It was as humid as a launderette.”
The Darkness
Darkness. What would fiction writers do without it? In the world of metaphor, darkness looms as the dark king overlooking them all. Here the writer adds a neat little twist to honor the king with a kiss:
“Night stole over the land again, dissolving it in shadows and blue. Every ten or twenty miles tongues of campfire licked the darkness.”
From the Ghostwriter
The actual word “metaphor” appears only once in the text - a demand to the ghostwriter to create one on the spot for a roulette ball. He complies with a simile:
“It’s like a genie, spending its fury until nothing is left.”
