Valid to the Beholder.

Question: Are other interpretations of metaphor valid?

I do not think that the author's intended meaning of a metaphor is the only valid interpretation. I do think that there is only one interpretation of the metaphor that correlates exactly with author's intent. However, I do not think that this is the most important use of a metaphor. I think that any interpretation of a metaphor is valid to the person who interprets it. If someone can see a connection between Richard being a lion and Richard being a transcendent triangular square orbiting the Triangulum galaxy, then it is valid to that person. That does not mean that any other person has to agree that this specific interpretation is relative at all to them. I do not think that metaphors are meant to be contained to the intend of the author. It may very well be that the author never intended for you to get anything else, but maybe the connection that the author made, helped you to make a connection that otherwise you would not have made. Metaphor meaning can change and be applied differently to different people and scenarios, I think.

He She They Who

In response to Shelby - full post here

I am honestly not certain that this is anything that need to be changed. I think that these characters are not only real, and with gender, in their fiction universes, but they have been written into our universe as well. Having emotions isn't the only thing that makes something real. I also see no functional use in purposefully using 'it' to describe characters; if it does anything, I think it will cause confusion or will take up more time when you are talking about two people in the same sentence. Snape is a potions master, and Lily is Harry's mother. After this I could say 'he loves her,' 'it loves it,' or any combination of their names. I think that the first one is the most useful while retaining it's clearness.

I also think that using it could be a slippery way to desensitize ourselves to the feelings of certain things. Again, I do not think it is  largely important, but I find it interesting that most people refer to pets and friends with the gender pronouns, but refer to the living animals who are going to be killed for human consumption as 'it.'

I don't think it's a large deal if we choose to say it, given that Snape and Lily will not be offended if we call them 'it.' However, I think for clarity purposes, we may as well continuing to use the gender pronouns of 'he,' 'she' and 'they'

Written Into Reality

Yes, I agree with all of this. You know, for a while now I've been thinking that I disagree with the idea that fictional characters are not real. I mean, they certainly are not corporeal. On what basis do we decided that fictional characters are not real, what makes them not real?  I think that fictional characters have, essentially, been written into reality. The experience pain and suffering within their fictional universe, have gender, have appearance, and have thoughts. They are not able to react with us, but I am not sure that it makes them unreal.

Only In Metaphor: Parable

Question: Are there examples of practical uses for speaking mostly in metaphor?

Why yes, I think so. While pondering over metaphor, I realized that metaphors are incredibly useful in being cryptic and secretive. It occurred to me that secret protection agencies use metaphors when they announce the stereotypical "the eagle is in the nest." I'm sure that there have been several books which are written purely in metaphor to avoid detection. The Bible is one example that occurred to me. Jesus, from what I know, spoke largely in parable. This is primarily because he wanted to spread his message nut he could not do so in a direct way due to the oppressive nature of the Roman Empire. Had he tried to convey his message out-right, without the help of metaphor, he may have very well been put to death long before he was, long before he had the chance to tell more parables. Additionally, telling a story in metaphor form will likely cause your audience to better remember the central message, even if it conveys the message no more clearly that direct language; Even if the message is slightly less clear to the general public, any message that they do get, they will better remember.

I suppose the problem with speaking mostly in metaphor is that many people will interpret the metaphor to mean many different things. Sometimes the new interpretations could be very well opposed to your original meaning; the bible is once again evidence of this.