I began by reading an article on autobiography by James Olney entitled Metaphors of Self. One of the elements in his analysis of autobiography is a “duplex metaphor” which essentially is the author analyzing himself at a previous point in his life when he was analyzing himself. (Olney is much more graceful in his language. I like calling it a meta-metaphor) I have several examples of this in readings for class, but I am trying to get the idea into my head concretely enough to write about it. This of course involves me thinking about other examples and trying to find a common thread to follow.
Unfortunately, my threads are not at all logical. You might say that my train of thought has no tracks. I came up with one example from The Onion. It was an article about a new game that is available in which you play a character who is playing a massive online multiplayer game: World of World of Warcraft. If you want to see the report click here: http://www.theonion.com/video/warcraft-sequel-lets-gamers-play-a-character-playi,14240/
At any rate I brought this random association up with Jeff, asked for some more reasonable examples, and he offered some suggestions. Here is a sample of how my brain functions (or doesn’t).
Me: I read about autobiography theory and the critic speaks about metaphor simplex (just a basic metaphor) and duplex (kind of a meta - metaphor. It is analyzing yourself analyzing yourself.) I am trying to put that into words and context that make sense to me
Unfortunately all I have come up with the the Onion Article about playing World of World of Warcraft.
Jeff: Meta thinking is simply thinking about how you think. When I talk to families about hidden family dynamics, I raise their awareness about unspoken rules and help them think about how they think as a family and how it affects their behavior. (He’s a therapist.)
Me: Yes I know. But I think there is an error in my positronic nets which does not allow me to make reasonable and valid associations. Maybe I should stop reading the Onion . . .
Jeff: Catcher in the Rye is a good example, because Holden is on a trip where he learns about himself and even thinks about himself and his behavior. The self-analysis of a character of a story, who is also subject to analysis would be a good example, I think.
Perhaps the movie, Being John Malkovich would be a good example of duplex metaphor.
Me: I have several examples from the reading that we have done, and I even like the concept. I just seem to only be able to think up to a point and then I hit my head into the same story or idea over and over without moving deeper into the layers of the concept. Of course an onion has layers . . .
Jeff: So do ogres.
Me: Great. Now I want a parfait.
Jeff: Everybody likes a parfait.
How about Groundhog Day?
In a sense, Murray's character has to analyze his performance from the day before in order to change himself...
Me: Now I'm thinking about sailing. . .
Jeff: Random . . .
For those of you who don’t follow my very tenuous leaps of logic that last one is from “What about Bob?”
Someone please tell me that I can turn my brain back on so that I can make actual literary associations.
