The Title
The title of the novel is, of course, where the metaphorical imagery of this book begins. But just what exactly does that imagery mean? How is the moon a mistress and what makes her harsh? Professor Bernardo de la Paz delivers the goods efficiently and succinctly:
“We citizens of Luna are jailbirds and descendants of jailbirds. But Luna herself is a stern schoolmistress; those who have lived through her harsh lessons have no cause to feel ashamed.”
Viva la Revolución
Much of the first part of the book is like a handbook to staring a revolution. Revolutionary theory gives way to the grassroots planning necessary for staging a successful revolution that doesn’t simply peter out as an impotent insurrection executed by ignorant incompetents. A lot of good stuff can be gathered here about the subject, even to the point of metaphorical axioms:
“Like a perfect dinner, a revolution has to be `cooked’ so that everything comes out even.”
Bombay
The city of Bombay, India plays a significant role in the narrative. Important to its situation is the overcrowding. And essential to describing this overcrowding is metaphor:
“Bombay was bee-swarms of people…At dawn in Bombay roadways, side pavements, even bridges are covered with tight carpet of human bodies.”
Fiery Rhetoric
The Professor is ignition key of the revolution. And his political speeches are designed to be incendiary as well as informative. The rhetoric of revolution cannot just sit there dead in the water; it must live and breath with passionate metaphorical imagery:
“Comrade Members, like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master…“But, whatever you do, do not let the past be a straitjacket!"
Libertarianism
Even more so than the title metaphor, there is another metaphor that has proven to be the book’s most popular and famous contribution to the power of language. A metaphorical maxim spouted more than once in the book was subsequently adopted as the unofficial slogan of libertarian ideological followers in the 1970’s to reflect their paranoid tendencies toward taxation and deficit spending:
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
