We live in a rather prosaic age in which the predominant style in most kinds of writing is sober and factual and we are usually ill at ease with the high-flown and poetic. If writers attempt anything very original or imaginative in serious contexts, they are likely to feel that they are sticking their necks out. We are continually reminded that "less is more," and understatement is, quite rightly, held to be more effective in most situations than overstatement.The one area where a writer can allow the imagination free rein is in comedy. There the usual criteria of appropriateness, good taste, and accuracy do not apply so strictly, and overstatement need not be out of place. If amusing your readers is your primary aim, or if you wish to provide your readers with a little light relief, then you may well find a space for the extravagant metaphor or simile that would be difficult to accommodate elsewhere:Freud explaining humor is like a boa constrictor squeezing the life out of some rather charming little animal. Margaret swanned into the room, but ducked out again as soon as she caught sight of Father O'Reilly. Henry shot out of his seat like a cork from a champagne bottle. A degree of correspondence between the event described and the image used to describe it is as necessary in a humorous image as in any other kind, but otherwise the more inventive and exuberant you can be, the better. But where a sense of humor is a useful asset to anyone who wants to use figurative language, a sense of the ridiculous is vital to anyone who wants to avoid using it incorrectly.
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