"I had always considered my thoughts as something abstract, but they weren't; they were as material as the heart beating in my chest. The same was true of the mind, the soul, the personality; all of it was fixed in the cells and originated as a result of the various ways in which these cells reacted with one another."

— Knausgaard, Karl Ove (b. 1968)


Date
December 30, 2015
Metaphor
"I had always considered my thoughts as something abstract, but they weren't; they were as material as the heart beating in my chest. The same was true of the mind, the soul, the personality; all of it was fixed in the cells and originated as a result of the various ways in which these cells reacted with one another."
Metaphor in Context
I had always considered my thoughts as something abstract, but they weren't; they were as material as the heart beating in my chest. The same was true of the mind, the soul, the personality; all of it was fixed in the cells and originated as a result of the various ways in which these cells reacted with one another. All of our systems, too -- communism, capitalism, religion, science -- they also originated in electrochemical currents flowing through this three-pound lump of flesh encased in the skull.
(p. 52)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Reading print edition, text from online. See Karl Ove Knausgaard, "The Terrible Beauty of Brain Surgery," New York Times Magazine (January 3, 2016). <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
01/05/2016

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.