2023-03-29 18:09:36 by ambuda-bot
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36
INTRODUCTION
proposition is the introduction or the suggestion of an irrelevant second
subject (an A'), which equally or more emphatically possesses the same
property B. "The candles' ... flames looked at me like the eyes of tigers
just waking from sleep" (Joyce Cary). The poetic deviation, concretely
speaking, on the first level is this forceful irrelevancy (aprākaraḥikatva),
"the eyes of tigers". The sentence is about candles, not about eyes. In
fact, in a statement scientifically directed to candles, tigers' eyes would be
considered, except for very occasional references, quite inapposite,
relevant only in statements regarding jungle hunting without flashlights
and the like. Poetic simile adds poetry to statement by creating a second
and parallel universe beyond the apparent and immediate one, a universe
whose only claim to relevance is appropriateness in view of a predication,
or rather, whose claim on the attention of the reader is precisely a func-
tion of its being only similar-having the same property-but not posses-
sing any of the other characteristics of relevance such as the same cause,
context, motive, etc.
Simile, then, is in a sense poetry. It is the basic form of poetry-the
reasoned use of irrelevancy. Rudrața groups together, without further
attempts at explicit sub-classifications (most of which are obvious by
definition), those figures which merely add a dimension to a basic simile.78
For example, the force of simile is a comparison:77 the second subject
introduces a comparative standard, which ordinarily heightens the percep-
tion of the predicate in the real subject. Such comparison is made explicit
by the use of certain adverbial particles: 'like', 'as' (English); iva, -vad,
yathā (Sanskrit). But if such explicit comparison is suppressed, we have
identification (rūpaka: literally, 'characterizer", though often translated
'metaphor', which is misleading):78 not A is like A', qua B; but A is A¹,
qua B. It is still a simile (in comprehension), but its expression is con-
siderably more forceful, employing forms which suggest an ontological
as well as a perceptual indistinguishability. A further variety occurs when
A' is not itself mentioned, but is only suggested through predicating to A
(the real subject) a quality or mode of behavior appropriate only to A'
"Kavyālamkāra, chap. 8.
77 Upamă. The word is used both for the family of figures based on simile and for
the simile itself. See below.
78 "Anena rūpyate । iti rūpakam". One thing is characterized as though it were another;
it assumes the form (rūpa) of another. Predication is essential to the figure rūpaka;
metaphor in Aristotle's sense of "figurative usage" need involve only a word which
bears another meaning in that context. The latter notion is an aspect of several
Indian figures, notably utprekşă, but never of rüpaka: "The flute of morning stilled
in noon-/noon the implacable bassoon (e.e. cummings).
19
INTRODUCTION
proposition is the introduction or the suggestion of an irrelevant second
subject (an A'), which equally or more emphatically possesses the same
property B. "The candles' ... flames looked at me like the eyes of tigers
just waking from sleep" (Joyce Cary). The poetic deviation, concretely
speaking, on the first level is this forceful irrelevancy (aprākaraḥikatva),
"the eyes of tigers". The sentence is about candles, not about eyes. In
fact, in a statement scientifically directed to candles, tigers' eyes would be
considered, except for very occasional references, quite inapposite,
relevant only in statements regarding jungle hunting without flashlights
and the like. Poetic simile adds poetry to statement by creating a second
and parallel universe beyond the apparent and immediate one, a universe
whose only claim to relevance is appropriateness in view of a predication,
or rather, whose claim on the attention of the reader is precisely a func-
tion of its being only similar-having the same property-but not posses-
sing any of the other characteristics of relevance such as the same cause,
context, motive, etc.
Simile, then, is in a sense poetry. It is the basic form of poetry-the
reasoned use of irrelevancy. Rudrața groups together, without further
attempts at explicit sub-classifications (most of which are obvious by
definition), those figures which merely add a dimension to a basic simile.78
For example, the force of simile is a comparison:77 the second subject
introduces a comparative standard, which ordinarily heightens the percep-
tion of the predicate in the real subject. Such comparison is made explicit
by the use of certain adverbial particles: 'like', 'as' (English); iva, -vad,
yathā (Sanskrit). But if such explicit comparison is suppressed, we have
identification (rūpaka: literally, 'characterizer", though often translated
'metaphor', which is misleading):78 not A is like A', qua B; but A is A¹,
qua B. It is still a simile (in comprehension), but its expression is con-
siderably more forceful, employing forms which suggest an ontological
as well as a perceptual indistinguishability. A further variety occurs when
A' is not itself mentioned, but is only suggested through predicating to A
(the real subject) a quality or mode of behavior appropriate only to A'
"Kavyālamkāra, chap. 8.
77 Upamă. The word is used both for the family of figures based on simile and for
the simile itself. See below.
78 "Anena rūpyate । iti rūpakam". One thing is characterized as though it were another;
it assumes the form (rūpa) of another. Predication is essential to the figure rūpaka;
metaphor in Aristotle's sense of "figurative usage" need involve only a word which
bears another meaning in that context. The latter notion is an aspect of several
Indian figures, notably utprekşă, but never of rüpaka: "The flute of morning stilled
in noon-/noon the implacable bassoon (e.e. cummings).
19