Analogies


sorabji.com: Words: Analogies
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By spunky on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 05:57 pm:

    Actual Analogies and Metaphors found in American High School Essays:


    Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
    His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
    She grew on him like she was a colony of E.coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
    She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
    Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
    He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
    The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
    McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
    Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
    The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
    They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
    He feel for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
    Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
    Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.
    The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law, Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
    "Oh, Bruce, take me!"she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on a $1-a-beer night.
    He was a lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame . . . maybe from stepping on a land mind or something.
    The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
    He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
    She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
    She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
    Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
    It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.


By Nate on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 06:33 pm:

    "Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever."

    that's great.


By semillama on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 07:32 pm:

    "He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up."

    Outstanding.


By spunky on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 08:00 pm:

    "McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. "

    Didn't that come out of a stephen king???


By Platypus on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 09:29 pm:

    "She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword."

    Simple. Beautiful. Absolutely perfect. I plan to use it at the earliest opportunity.


By Ophelia on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 11:24 pm:

    i'll have to dig up a copy of the essay that was in my application to Swarthmore for you guys. i call it my Brie Essay, cause it was so cheesy and yet such high quality cheese. i think that i knew that place was too scary-hard for me and so i totally overdid the essay so they would reject me. i never found out how they liked it, tho, cause i had to retract my application when i got into my school early decision. it was about trees soaking up knowledge from the campus, something along those lines, but it's on a disk somewhere at home. the whole damn essay was one grossly extended metaphor.


By wisper on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 01:15 am:

    all of those are beautiful.
    even yours, Ophelia!
    trees soaking up knowledge....classic.

    "The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM."

    i FELL that one, man.


By spunky on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 10:45 am:

    "Essay, cause it was so cheesy and yet such high quality cheese."

    MMMMM
    EAZY CHEESE
    MMMM

    and cheddar, not nacho or american, but easy chedder cheese and ritz crackers. class!


By Spider on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 11:01 am:

    "Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened."

    I don't believe this was written by a high school student.

    Nonetheless, these are great.

    I'm reminded of a Henry Rollins story that is totally ruined by one lame-assed sentence. It's about being executed in an electric chair, and it's solemn and moving until you get to, "Flames are shooting out of my head like, like, like, flames shooting out of my head." Why, Henry? Don't you edit?


By Spider on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 11:08 am:

    Actually, I don't believe any of these were written by high school students.

    "Oh, Bruce, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on a $1-a-beer night.

    What kind of high school essay is this from? What high schooler would use this analogy?


    These sound like things from the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Fiction contest.


By TBone on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 01:01 pm:

    Shots rang out, as shots are want to do.
    .
    My favorite.
    .
    But I'm not sure any of these were metaphors. Similes, mostly.


By patrick on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 01:11 pm:

    but spider, Rollins has always made a point to write like he speaks hasnt he?


By Spider on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 02:41 pm:

    Has he? Well, anyway, he's written a lot of great, serious pieces without screwing them up...I was annoyed that he had to ruin this one. He should have just said, "Flames are shooting out of my head."


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