The Metaphor Detour

In the section entitled “Something Like A World Order” Blumenberg speaks of detours. Detours can be defined as a diversion around a planned route that may be prohibited for one reason or another. This idea has very profound implications in the literary world, specifically in regard to metaphors. This literary tool uses tangible or well known examples to explain the unknown. Like a detour on the road a metaphor takes the reader from point A to point B in a roundabout, yet nonetheless, defined manner.

However, what exactly is the important relationship between metaphors and reality? In doing some research on the internet I found countless articles describing the way in which movies are used as metaphors for our lives. Citing movies like “The Matrix” in which many believe, metaphorically speaking, describes the simplicity of our world. As if to say we are programmed into “the system” and churn out predictable results. On the other hand, when analyzing this film I find the metaphor to portray not the straightforward route, rather a Blumneberg detour. Sure the movie can depict life as merely a computer simulation, but it also has characters entering new realms, discovering new things and encountering new situations. This “computer simulation” is in fact the literary tool used to travel on the road less followed, the detour, the path around the most common way to the destination.

What makes this tool so profound is its ability to provide relief to the complexities we happen upon. A metaphor is never the direct way to move towards an objective. Conversely, it takes the reader on a roundabout journey to provide a more eye-opening experience. In essence, the metaphor is used not only to progress towards a target but to additionally add meaning to the expedition that brought you there. As if to say getting from point A to point B in life cannot be defined by the simplest route, instead it requires time off the beaten path, in the unknown, detouring.