#mataphors

[redconsumerism]

TO CONSUME IS (not) TO LOVE

cannibalism in romance novels

Cannibalism is like a parallax. For once it exists as a ‘philia’, characterized by the desire of eating another. And we find that it exists in the opposite spectrum, in the form of a ‘phobia’, which speaks of the fear of being eaten or partaking unknowingly or forcefully in the act of eating another. To vore is adjacent to love in most cases, both feared and desired. Because to love someone is (apparently) to want to consume them. 

Though cannibalism might seem like a barbaric and horrific concept, it is said to be one of the most intense demostrations of love that exist in both classic and contemporary literature. The gruesome gesture reminds the lecturer of the intensity of love and its lunacy. As Mercedes Abad stated in spanish newsletter ‘el tiempo’ on May 21st, 1995 ‘There is no doubt that love and sex are feasts where, to a greater or lesser extent, we all become anthropophagi who would surely find it quite difficult to answer the question of whether there is greater pleasure in phagocytosing the other or in being phagocytosed.’ Because Cannibalism as a metaphor for love in romance novels, as it is in our day to day, is more about the blind consumerism of it rather than the pureness of it. One example of blind consumerism of love would be in Salvador Dali's Autobiography, where it is mentioned how Gala cooked their pet rabbit because of how much they loved it, in front of the woman’s refusal to the idea of leaving the rabbit with the maids.

To love is to consume, but to consume is to devour and transform in reusable energy. Like a vampire would when consuming someone’s blood, so they can continue living at the other’s cause. You live off the love you take, but if you devour that love, the other cannot live. The truth is cannibalism has a double connotation, and consuming the other’s otherness is three dimensional. Which means it isn’t always about love, or the lack thereof, but more so about the act of possessing. Cannibalism isn’t only one of the greatest manifestations of tenderness (for many), but also the irrevocably selfishness of an individual blinded by desire - in front of the morbid contemplation of the lover giving themselves so the other can survive -. The amorous-sexual instincts that resurface from a deep sense of infatuation together with those of hunger - a basic instinct - that create an irrational longing, unite in cannibalism as an analogy for that which we wish to become one with. It leaves you to question if the love narrated is but an act of survival for starved people.

‘Love is only a prologue to two cannibals struggling to take a bite of each other.’ - La Oscuridad, Ignacio Ferrando Perez (2014.) Cannibalism is, then, the imposture of love, and the obscure craving of something bigger than yourself without any understanding of it. 

[brucethewannabebard]

Bad food and fast metaphors.

I find that my mind is getting weird with the way it relates the tragedy of us to the world around me. They say that heartbreak and love make poets of us all, but not necessarily a good poet it seems. Maybe my mind is just not creative enough, maybe even my imagination and creative drive is tired of my still being hung up on this after such a long time. Regardless of the reason, I find myself comparing our relationship, and us, to a couple of fast food chains now. Maybe I am just losing my mind.

See I was thinking about how I go to Culver's quite often now. Every time I go I think about how we never went together, despite there being one close by our house, because you assured me they sucked. I never questioned it, as at this point you were still playing the role of someone with similar tastes and values to me. The charade hadn't yet been dropped. So I trusted your assessment, despite never having been, and continued to rely on my old favorite: Steak N' Shake.

I would hit it all the time, you didn't mind since we always made sure to get you a shake when we went. Now I think of you as Steak N Shake, I saw you in the same way. You were both things from my past that I had a fondness for and saw as they used to be. I saw the restaurant as a quality place all things considered, a good burger, great fries, affordable. Really I saw it as comfort and dependable. It took a while before I really noted how much the chain had changed since I was a kid. My favorite menu items were slowly removed, the old school ketchup bottles and general aesthetic changed, they stopped using wait staff. Little by little the fun restaurant I went to with my family and friends for lunch on a day out turned into a generic overpriced and lazy fast food chain.

Similarly, you were not as I remembered you. Though much like SnS you put up the front of being so. The empathy I thought you had it turns out was false. The passion I assumed you had was actually just a picture of a fire propped up in the fireplace. The loyalty and honesty you valued back in high school when we met had both become traded commodities to you. I, of course, saw this all too late. So much like one of my favorite restaurants, one of my favorite people had lost its heart and value in favor of cheap imitations, thinking that the average consumer is an idiot and it is about what can be taken from them, not what you give in return.

So if you are steak N shake, and out relationship is the view I took of the restaurant, ignorant of its decline, where does Culver's fit in?

Well it is a place that still provides what it advertises. No, it isn't some high end classy place serving master class dining. But it is a place that give a quality product at a good size, and consistently delivers it for a reasonable price. So I guess Culver's is me. Sitting around, being something of surprising quality for its price tag, with a few items special to them that they take pride in doing well, and completely overlooked by you as a place that sucks. Not because I couldn't give exactly what I advertised and what you said you wanted from me, but because you have bad taste and are more concerned with taking than providing.

I don't mean to prop up Culver's, it is a fine enough place but it is still fast food. I am not sure if this metaphor makes it out to be better than it is, or if it just downplays my own value to keep with the theme. Maybe it is actually apt to compare myself to some run of the mill franchise. Maybe it is stupid of me to use a franchise at all given Culver's is very capable of making the same type of decisions as Steak N Shake. After all, it is still a franchise. Maybe I should compare myself to something more stead and less business focused. Too late now.

I still occasionally frequent steak N shake, accepting it for what it is now, realizing that its motives shouldn't have surprised me. It is a franchise and does what most franchises do. I made the mistake of assuming it was something else. So I can get my steak burger and remember the good times I spent there back in the day.

I still visit your memory. You are a liar, a user, and a cheater. That is who you are and what you do. I was a fool for thinking you wouldn't be that with me. So I sit down, and listen to our song. And I think of the illusion you kept up and pretend it was real for a time. I play it like an old movie, and enjoy the performance for what it is. Knowing it isn't what I once thought, and never can be what I believed it to be.

[fkapommel]

Harrow's end, from least to most certain

[tropicalua]

sometimes we just have to draw our friends random prompts. and things WILL be okay

important detail: i added an umbrella to the cockroach

[penstealingghost]

My favorite pieces of characterization about Snow in Ballad

It is written in third person limited perspective instead of first person like the trilogy

He hates poetry and struggles to decipher it

[itwoodbeprefect]

🌹🌹🌹🌹(on 💧+ whiskers on 🐱🎶 for a few of your favorite things)

haha, a whole song! thank you. <3

for the whiskers on kittens, i will give you four separate sentences from a new favorite Secret Fic that came out of nowhere recently and is, well, mildly AU:

1.

When it comes in, staticky over the radio in the Torino, it initially sounds like another routine call – disturbance of the peace in the shape of a dragon on the roof.

2.

“That’s so sweet,” one of the assembled women coos, and Hutch really wishes this day were over already.

3.

“It’s better if she’s a little less gooey before we take her,” Starsky says, which is one of the most insane things Hutch has ever heard come out of his mouth.

4.

There, huddled in the abandoned nest and chewing toothlessly on his ruined handkerchief, sits their best hope at a murder witness.

[legendofthefireemblem]

I thought this would be a quick and easy drabble about bullfighting allusions and Prž being a lowkey masochist but I’m at 100 words, hinting at slash w Sepp, and barely any bull mataphors in sight :/

[stardusthuntress]

THE REFLECTIONS!!!

It appears that maniacally brilliant scientist, Imperial Tech, has just had a breakthrough on whatever super secret thingy he's been devising.

[wolfram-but-art]

a love so pure you could call it violent

rb > likes <|:3

in reference to this song!!! (and also personal rp :3) vvvvv

i'm sorry to anyone and everyone who ships Engie and Medic together umm fsiegfysgye

also something something fighting and violence and manipulation being a sort of dance and also power imbalance with the leading partner being a mataphor for an abuser

[gayaest]

I had someone insisting that a character being disabled has to be a metaphor for something. They refused to accept that I drew a disabled character for no deep symbolic reason or that I knew a person with that disability and the character was loosely inspired by them. Nope, it was to be a mataphor.

Ugh! That’s really frustrating… some people are just… DISABLED! That’s just how life is!

Some people are born disabled, some people become disabled early in life, but in the end… everyone will end up disabled. The disability community is a huge community because it’s one of the only ones that everyone will eventually wind up in, one way or another.

It reminds me of how people will often see disability as a “moral” thing, like “you must’ve done something bad or wrong to cause this” which is just, not true. Disability has no moral ties, nobody /did/ anything to be disabled, they just simply are, and that’s a normal part of human life.

It also makes me think of how people use disability as a “gotcha”. Like, “i wish this bad person would become disabled because /they deserve it/“ because disability isn’t “deserved”. It’s just a way of life. People have a lot of rotten and ableist ways of thinking about disability and it’s definitely disappointing when you know they don’t see disabled people as human beings but rather “an inspiration” or “a metaphor”.

Some people are just Disabled!

[angelshizuka]

A lot of people have pointed out this looks like a mataphor for Blitz being in an (emotional) cage.

I totally agree, but wanted to add to it. A cage is like a wall you can see through. Like, it's still something getting in the way, something you're stuck in or something you can't get inside of. But you can at least see what's going on at the other side.

I mean, Blitz's walls are slowly coming down and becoming more transparent, but all of it doesn't magically disappear overnight. If I making any sense...

[cherubispunk]

NEPHILIM (series masterlist) - Jackson-era!Joel Miller x AFAB!Reader

summary: Joel Miller was something of a biblical figure to you. A small glimpse into the past of something archaic, untold, and harbouring on the dangerous. You liked to imagine him as one of the Nephilim. A son of god, offspring borne of a fallen angel and man. A giant of misunderstood nature. Who’s soul had been cast down on earth in punishment. His large hands had bloodshed on them, or so people had said. They whispered it quietly in the spaces between. The places he didn’t occupy often. But he was always on your mind…so there was no place for those whispers there.

a note from Lucy: biblical imagry, canibalism as a mataphor, animal imagry, joels stiff upper lip, mutual pining, two grown adults being bloody cowards!!! It's all fucking crack cocaine to me. So...enjoy two iditos in love. All parts are in chronological order.

playlist

NEPHILIM: BAMBI

w/c: 1563 | angst, fluff

summary: when does a human stop being regarded as a human…and, instead, seen as something different entirely?

Warnings: 18+ MDNI! no use of y/n but reader is referred to as ‘Bambi’, no physical description of reader apart from ‘long lashes’, brief descriptions of injury and blood, religious imagery, use of guns/ being taught to shoot, me not remembering how to shoot even though I was taught how to so there may be inaccuracies lolsies, Joel is a little bit of a dick but it’s only because he cares!

NEPHILIM

w/c: 2498 | angst, smut

summary: the disturbing comforts the disturbed.

Warnings: 18+ MDNI DARK CONTENT! no use of y/n, I tried to keep her body type as generic as possible but he might be slightly skinny coded so please let me know and I’ll change it in edits, reader is referred to as ‘Bambi’, verbally constipated Joel Miller, brief gore descriptions, heavy religious imagery and references to the bible, biblical lore, bombastic age gap!!! yahhhhh! (reader is in her 20’s/ Joel is in his late 50’s), smut, p in v sex, creampie, fingering, rough sex, possessive!joel, dom!joel/sub!reader dynamic, you know the drill with my writing, there’s probably some form of cannibalism as a metaphor, or brutal violence as a metaphor, religious imagery as a metaphor, etc. (aka, fancy word vomit)

NEPHILIM: THE FALLEN | POEM

wc: 2755 | angst, fluff?, smut

summary: fallen or damned? who's to tell when it's joel miller

Warnings: 18+ MDNI DARK CONTENT! no use of y/n, reader is referred to as ‘Bambi’, verbally constipated Joel Miller, brief gore descriptions, heavy religious imagery and references to the bible, biblical lore, yearning, idiots in love, angst angst angst!!!!!!, bombastic age gap!!! yahhhhh! (reader is in her 20’s/ Joel is in his late 50’s), smut, oral sex (m! receiving), rough oral sex, possessive!joel, dom!joel/sub!reader dynamic, you know the drill with my writing, there’s probably some form of cannibalism as a metaphor, or brutal violence as a metaphor, religious imagery as a metaphor, etc. (aka, fancy word vomit) - Lucy crying over a bloody google doc :)

[suiana]

"my beloved, if love was like canniballism i'd let you eat all of me until there was nothing left"

GIRL WHY DID THAT LINE KIND OF EAT??? YOU COOKED WITH THIS NGL...

canniballism as a mataphor for love ALWAYS devours

maybe i should write a canniballistic yan or canniballistic reader?

[tumblezwei]

Stealing a handful of my roommate's kitkats, playing Mataphor Refantazio, and imagining post-Arcane Lightcannon meet-cutes

weekend off to a great start

[themultifanshipper]

alleged comments? girl they’re on video look it up yourself. tbh there’s no situation in which trump deserves any respect after everything that he’s done. he’s a rapist, racist, misogynist, homophobe, criminal, and the list could go on and on. it doesn’t matter what he’s done but everyone knows the type of man trump is and he does not deserve an ounce of respect. i understand lando having to be polite and having to shake hands and greet him because of the team and that’s fine. other drivers have also had to do that with questionable political people on podiums and stuff and you can’t blame them if they won’t actively speak out against it because it’s not always safe to do that. but the way he went on about trump in the interview was different from that. he could have brushed it off without saying anything bad or insult him but he didn’t. it’s okay to like a driver even when they make mistakes but you should be able to at least hold them accountable and hold them to the same standards you hold other drivers, especially ones you don’t like.

He's an absolutely despicable person with no redeeming qualities I agree, so why did over half of america vote him in? And then almost again 4 years later? For the same reason that other misogynist racist homophobes are working in formula one. People turn a blind eye if it makes them rich. I could make you a list of all the problematic ppl currently in f1 (incliding drivers) and if you put them all in jail, trust me there would be nobody left.

Anyway I do want to hold lando accountable, not because he actually believed anything he was saying (it was a PRESS conference! Most of what they say is pre agreed with their teams especially thing like this) but because I think this is a good opportunity to actually get some backlash and be obligated to adress it and maybe do something good. Idk either condemning trump, firing zak brown (wishful thinking I know), limiting the presence of political figures at races idk...

Small other thing, personnally I know what lando's like, he gets anxious and giggly at the best of times, so meeting someone like trump is incredibly awkward for him especially if he happens to not like him, and then having to talk about it in a press conference, no matter what is previously agreed with the team, could only lead to disaster. He was indeed smiling the whole time and over doing it with the reverent tone, but his body language suggested to me that he was incredibly uncomfortable with the whole thing.

And although lando is the catalyst, he is basically like a child driving a car (idk if y'all are familiar with the mataphor if not, just ignore) and I truly don't believe any part of this situation is his fault. He shouldn't have been put in this situation in the first place and he's taking the brunt of the citicism that should be put on the team (again, zak brown if you can hear me I know where you live). I can imagine Oscar would have done the exact same thing, maybe just not as clumsy with the statements.

Edit: just a disclaimer, I do not idolize lando, I don't think he can do no wrong, he's immature, a dick, and I don't like the way he interacts with his mates, and frankly I would fuck nasty and leave fasty bc he's hot and bendy but his personality? Meh. He's also a good driver and everything but yeah, anyway i'm rambling now so... bye

[hehearse]

i adore your art so much holy shit. All the emotions and the care you put into it and the THEMES. Looking at your art gives me the same feeling as reading poetry I memorize because it manages to convey more than I can say in my own words. this is awesome. Hope you have a great day!

gasp!! thank you so much <3 i am SO glad there's some meat on these mataphorical bones despite it all <3 hope you too will have a great day!