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I N D I R E C T N E S S

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 MASTER OF METAPHOR

I want to dedicate a separate chapter to the technique of indirectness.

Indirectness is just another type of metaphor, a topic we just covered in the

previous chapter, but it is so important and powerful as a technique that it
deserves a separate chapter.

Not to take anything from the other techniques which are like favorite restaurants
you want to go to over and over again, but true metaphoric genius resides within
this one technique, which is more like a three star Michelin restaurant. Not as easy
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to go to often, but when you do, it satisfies you like nothing else and it ll blow your
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mind.

This is truly the most advanced level of metaphoric speech.

One of my favorite indirect metaphors that I ve ever heard is from the TV show
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"Suits , which is one of my favorite TV shows ever, and I am going to use it to

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illustrate this concept.

In a scene between the famous lawyer Harvey Specter and his young associate
Mike Ross, they are walking out of court after winning a case with Mike s in the'

moment brilliance. Mike is feeling proud of himself and in a celebratory mood, so

he asks Harvey, who at this early point in the show is still his begrudging mentor:

Mike: "Does this mean we're partners now?"

Harvey: "Don't move your things into Wayne Manor yet."

There s so much going on here with Harvey s answer.

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First, he is trying to say that they are not even close to being partners yet.

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Second, he is also implying that he s Batman and that Mike is merely the sidekick,
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and that Mike needs to understand that.

And he says none of that directly.

If he was being direct or literal, he would just say No. We re definitely NOT
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partners. "

But, instead he says all of this indirectly. And, there are two levels of indirectness
going on.

The first level is the implication that he s Batman and Mike is merely a sidekick.
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We re not even sure if he sees Mike as Robin at this point in the TV series.
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The second level is that when implying that he s Batman, he doesn t directly say
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he s Batman, but instead he says it indirectly: Don t move your stuff into Wayne
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Manor yet , Wayne Manor being Bruce Wayne s aka Batman s mansion.
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And all of this is Harvey basically saying to Mike don t think you re all that great yet .
" ' ' "

Do you see how genius Harvey s response is?

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So, the moral of the story is that in phrasing your metaphors, the more indirectly
you can phrase your metaphor without making it too obscure, the better and more
genius it can be.

Now, let s just do one quick exercise here. If you were Harvey, what s another way
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you can say to Mike that you two are not partners yet? And make sure you do it in
an indirect way.
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Here s my suggestion:
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Don t put a deposit down for the photographer and banquet hall yet .
" ' "

Here I use a wedding as a underlying metaphor for the budding partnership, but I
state it indirectly by using items that are related to a wedding.

Originally, I was thinking Don t book the photographer and banquet hall yet , but I
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changed it slightly put a deposit down instead of book to add a little more
(" " " ")

drama and higher stakes to the metaphor.

It s these little tweaks that can add so much impact, and those are the things you
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will develop more intuition in doing as you practice metaphoric speaking over
time.

Now, come up with your own metaphor for this example.

This concept is so important to becoming a master of metaphor, I want to give you

a few more examples to illustrate the process.

Here s another one from the TV show Californication , by yet another master of
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metaphor, Hank Moody:

In musing about the difference between men and women, Hank Moody said:
"When it comes to emotions, women know how to paint with the full set of oils,
while men are busy doodling with crayons. ”

This is a truly amazing metaphor that only a true master can create, but the first
step is to think of a direct metaphor that relates to the underlying idea of men
being underdeveloped when it comes to emotions. Roughly speaking, this is

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how Hank Moody got there:

In this case, the word underdeveloped makes you think of infants.

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Then, when thinking of infants, you think of a bunch of things they

do, and doodling with crayons is definitely one of them. This is now the indirect
metaphor you are going to go with.

Then, using contrast, you think of painting with oils as the counterpoint to
doodling with crayons. And voila...you have an indirect metaphor!

Now, my point here isn t to tell you exactly how to do this, but just to illustrate the
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thought process.

Indirect metaphors are the most challenging type of metaphor to create and there
is not necessarily a specific step by step formula. There s no GPS to creating an
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indirect metaphor. All I can do is to give you a hand drawn, crusty, browned, torn,
vague, and ambiguous pirate s treasure map for you, and the steps would go
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something like this:

1. Decide on the idea concept you are trying to convey with your metaphor.
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2. Think of a direct metaphor relating to the concept, preferably a clever one.

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3. Think of an indirect way to convey the metaphor you came up with

4. Optional Tweak the indirect metaphor using contrast, exaggeration,

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elaboration, or other techniques.

So, let s go through one more indirect metaphor, this time from House of Cards :
' " "

Here Frank Underwood is talking about his estranged wife, Claire:

I'll give Claire some time. But for her sake, I hope she comes out of her tree before I
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have to bring out my axe. "

So, the underlying idea he s trying to convey is that Claire is being immature and
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he hopes that she ll come back to him, and if not, he ll have to do something
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drastic about it.

So, instead of saying she s immature, he goes indirect with an implication she is a
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child.

So, instead of calling Claire a child directly, he calls her that indirectly using the
treehouse metaphor.

There s also a second level of indirectness going on too. He throws in the concept
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of the axe to indirectly state that she better come back to him or else... . ( )

There you go, I hope you now know how powerful the indirect metaphor is.
Start practicing how to do this today!

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