Metaphor is another name for veer, for swerve, for indirect interaction, for “telling it slant.” Metaphors involve two different realities that are forced together to form a new reality, with the metaphor itself a frame that connects the conjoined meanings into a revelatory focus. But there is one key feature of the metaphor that is both the source of its creativity and of its frustration, its magnetism, and its distancing. The interactions of frame and focus make metaphors fuzzy. In other words, even though a metaphor is easy to pick up, not everyone will get it, and those who do will be left
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