What's with the blog title, Steiner?

The title "The Metaphysical Conceit," my people, comes from a literary analysis of my FAVORITE POEM IN ALL THE WORLD: John Donne's "The Flea." A metaphysical conceit is a sort of EXTREME METAPHOR. Donne says that it's when the two subjects of comparison are "yoked by violence." In other words, there is just no way that the two subjects of comparison should ever be compared to one another, because they have not one thing in common. Or do they? Donne is the master at putting things together that should, in the interest of good taste, remain far apart. When we read the poem "The Flea," (and we will read it, rest assured) you will see a flea and a flea bite compared (very elegantly) to love, marriage, and um, all that might follow from there. The metaphysical conceit is just so wrong, it's right.

So now, why name the blog "The Metaphysical Conceit"? Because it's my job to yoke you (with loving violence, if necessary) to the texts we're reading, to one another as scholars, and to your best selves as writers. Maybe it's easier to just imagine it all a big metaphor: I say, metaphorically, "You are scholars," not the much weaker simile "You are LIKE scholars." Even though you may not always literally feel all that scholarly, metaphorically, you always are. Perhaps the best any of us can do is to act metaphorically--and to believe in the power of metaphor to help us become our best literal selves.