"That reminds me of a wonderful quote from a professional cartoonist who also teaches a university level course on comedy, who said he thought of 'humour as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason.'"
— Bhalla, Jag
Author
Date
August 5, 2009
Metaphor
"That reminds me of a wonderful quote from a professional cartoonist who also teaches a university level course on comedy, who said he thought of 'humour as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason.'"
Metaphor in Context
Getting back to the original question: why on earth do we communicate like this? And people everywhere on earth do -- all cultures use forms of non-literal language. The bottom line is that the use of idioms in language is an excellent example of how we aren't built to function only logically. The scientific evidence now suggests that the way we think, about the way we think, is built on an outdated model. That reminds me of a wonderful quote from a professional cartoonist who also teaches a university level course on comedy, who said he thought of "humour as a necessary counterweight to the hegemony of reason". Much other scientific weight is being added to counter the "hegemony of reason" that we've lived under since the Enlightenment.
Categories
Provenance
Contributed by Eileen Varga
Citation
Bhalla, Jag. "The Idiotic Joys of Idioms." The Guardian Books Blog. August 5, 2009. <Link to guardian.co.uk>
Date of Entry
08/07/2009
