Blog # 3

Write Blog #3 (200-400 words) comparing your second reading experience with your first. Did you notice something new? Did you react differently to one of the author’s claims? Did you read something critically when, at first, you read it as a believer or vice versa? Continue to “clear the fog.” Look up at least two more terms or references that you don’t know. Please elaborate on one moment that “clearing the fog” helped you better understand the author’s argument. Finally, please include a hyperlink to at least one resource you used to “clear the fog.” Remember: when seeking quick definitions or glossary terms, you don’t need to be too particular about your source. Feel free to use Wikipedia or the Dictionary.com. Remember, you aren’t conducting research, just trying to clarify a reference or term that you can’t initially place.

The second reading left me much less confused than the first reading. I felt like I was on the same page as Erard and really understood his use of metaphors, as well as his explanation of metaphors, much more clearly. At first, his metaphor about a room needing furniture, and how people will interpret a new room, was a little hard to understand. I didn’t comprehend how important Erard’s point that “it’s the cognitive (responses) you’re after” (6) rather than the emotional responses was. Coming back to it after reading the entirety of his essay over again, it encompasses his explanation about the designing and use of metaphors.

I had to look up a few terms in order to clear the fog. Erard says that when designing metaphors it is inevitable that you will “leav(ing) material on the cutting room floor” (2). I had a basic understanding that he meant that you’d scrap certain components and throw them away. After looking it up, it actually is a film industry term for unused film not being included in the final product. The film may have been developed and edited, but it is not included in the final product. Knowing this more detailed meaning behind the metaphor enhances my understanding of the metaphor editing process.

Another term that I had to look up was the exact meaning of bottleneck. Erard uses this term when explaining the importance of emphasizing a new metaphor. I knew that I had heard this term before but didn’t know its exact meaning. To be honest, this metaphor still doesn’t make sense to me even after looking it up. I looked at all the definitions of a bottleneck and none of them really stuck out as relating to English. Regardless, looking up the definition of the word allowed me to better understand Erard and what he was trying to convey.