Reading time: Just over 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a metaphorical sentence by James Wolcott.
American journalist James Wolcott produces elaborate, labyrinthine sentences, seeping with metaphors. The cultural critic for Vanity Fair magazine and a contributing writer for the New Yorker, Wolcott also writes a blog. But it was a recent Vanity Fair contribution of his that caught my eye. Headlined: It’s Getting Hot In Here, the article lambasted Food Network stars Guy Fieri, Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay for their various shennanigans.
Even though I’m a serious reader, I’m also a committed cook. Committed enough to find some of the Food Network shows highly entertaining. (Chopped is my favourite. I can’t tolerate Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, however.) I’ve never seen a Paula Deen show, but, referring to her high-bad-carb, trademark dishes Wolcott said this:
Rich in sugar, flour and nostalgia, they slow down the metabolism and thought processes, inducing a semiconscious sloth bliss state that is deaf and blind to the entreaties of Barack and Michelle Obama as they extend a head of broccoli as America’s last hope.
I like the way he suggests that a sweet diet leads to a slothful state (not sure this is even a metaphor — it’s true!) But I also appreciate his metaphor about the Obamas extending a “head of broccoli” to the nation. His paradox that this is “America’s last hope” is overstated, but amusing nonetheless.
Read the article if you have any interest in food and if you want to be entertained by rococo writing.
