Maybe you're gonna be the one who saves me

[venta]

In between courageous attempts[*] to get the whole tube carriage to join in singing Wonderwall late on Saturday night, a somewhat inebriated bloke drew Cathy and I into a conversation. We were required to solve an argument that he and his mate had apparently been having all day. As it turned out, we agreed with his take on things - but his mate steadfastly refused to be convinced.

So, since this it the only true way to settle an argument:

[Poll #1026597]

Please show your working in the comments.

[*] More successful than you might think. He found one other equally enthusiastic person and they got through at least two verses before they ran out of words. At one point, stopped at a station, they even got a benchful of people on the platform to join in.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I have a question: why is this remotely controversial?

Or does that just mean I have the wrong answer? ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I thought it wasn't controversial. However, my knowledge is limited to one pre-GCSE English lesson, which went:

"My love is a red, red rose" is a metaphor, cos it doesn't say 'like'.
"My love is like a red, red rose" is a simile, cos it does.

The (soberer) bloke who insisted "eat like a pig" was a metaphor sounded so convincing that I began to wonder if it was actually more complicated than "is the word 'like' involved".

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I think it is (slightly) more complex. Because I'd say something is still a simile if it draws a comparison. The word "like" is just by far the easiest way to do that.

As a result, it is possible to construct slightly controversial borderline cases, such as "he and the ducks waddled along the path together". So the bloke being talked about either has a duck's walk (metaphor) or walks like a duck (simile) or possibly we shouldn't apply either term here. I don't know.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Hm. Is that a dead metaphor with an implicit simile?

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

Metaphor is where you describe something as if it were something else.
Simile is where you describe something as like something else.
'nuff said.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

[X] A hospitable invite.

[dmh.livejournal.com]

A metaphor has seemingly unrelated subjects, e.g. "the world's a stage."

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

But if you said "the world's like a stage" it'd be a simile.

[dmh.livejournal.com]

And if I'd said, "The world's Elizabeth's stage, and she eats like a pig"... well... then I'd probably get a slap! :oD

[venta.livejournal.com]

Any day, mate, just pass me the trough...

[dmh.livejournal.com]

Tee-hee! I am quite the cheeky one.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Well, the "like a" is a giveaway for it being a simile isn't it?

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

like ⇒ simile

[venta.livejournal.com]

I first read this delivered by email, where html entities are displayed in text form. I'm not familiar with that entity, and now I see it rendered it's disappointingly non-piratical.

Apologies...

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

You're after ☠, but it's very ill-supported

Re: Apologies...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow!

Happy now :)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Does it contain "as" or "like"?
Yes.
So it's a simile.
As easy as pie.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Can't put it any better than that; glad to see that I'm not alone in thinking that "as" creates similes as efficiently as "like".

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The "as" or "like" rule is what I was taught at some early stage of school.

But as almost everything else I was taught then has subsequently been revealed as massively over-simplified or else just plain wrong, it wouldn't surprise me much if this was too.

Reconciling the messages of these two entries is left as an exercise for the reader:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simile#Simile_vs_metaphor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor#Metaphor_and_Simile

[eviltwinemma.livejournal.com]

Pig Out or Eat Piggily = Metaphor
Eat Like a Pig = Simile

As as a is a non-like-containing type of simile...

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Cos when I was a lass at school I was taught like=simile. But that was long ago in the days when semi-colons were in vogue ;-)