The Illustrated Man
In the prologue to the collection which introduces the unifying element—the illustrated man—the tattoos covering his body which give him his nickname as described in great detail with flourishes of prose. All the expenditure of information on the subjects and vivid quality of colors are less viable a means of conveying his overall appearance than one single, easily digested and understood metaphor:
“the man was a walking treasure gallery”
"Kaleidoscope"
The opening paragraph of “Kaleidoscope” is—appropriately, if not necessarily by design—a kaleidoscope of metaphorical imagery. The imagery which piles up quite quickly here is effective at creating an image in the mind for the reader of something that—at least when he was writing—most could not easily imagine based on film or TV:
“The first concussion cut the rocket up the side with a giant can opener. The men were thrown into space like a dozen wriggling silverfish. They were scattered into a dark sea; and the ship, in a million pieces, went on, a meteor swarm seeking a lost sun.”
Simple and Effective
Sometimes the most effective metaphor can be the simplest. Whereas the example above pile up a collection of images on top of the next, much can also be accomplished with a simple declarative statement that just about anybody could relate to:
“The ship was quiet as a stopped clock.”
Confusing and Complex
On the other hand, sometimes the way to go is toss in some really off-the-wall comparisons and allow the reader to figure out the figurative language on their own. The nice thing about writing within a genre like science fiction is that precision does not always have to be at the forefront of a metaphor. Just the strangeness of the comparison is often enough to create the mood or atmosphere desired:
“The white, white jungle with the pale cheese-colored leaves, and the earth carved of wet Camembert, and the tree boles like immense toadstools—everything black and white.”
Mars
It’s not The Martian Chronicles, but the tattoos on the illustrated man do tell some stories about the red planet. In one of them, some perhaps rather surprising information about Mars is conveyed through the metaphorical language of a character:
“Mars is like that uncleaned closet we have neglected for millenniums. Sin has collected there like bric-a-brac.”
