Metaphor as a means of constructing artistic reality (by the example of the analysis of the metaphor "centaur" in Meir Shalev's novel "Esav")

Most definitions of metaphor come from the Aristotelian concept. "A figurative word (metaphora) is an unusual name transferred from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy" ^{[1, p. 669]}. In Wikipedia we read: "Metaphor (dr-Greek. "transference; figurative meaning", from "over" +  "carrier") ? a word or expression used in a figurative sense, which is based on a comparison of an object or phenomenon with some other on the basis of their common feature…In all cases, there is a transfer of some meaning from one word to another" ^[8].

Perhaps art historians are satisfied with such a definition, but not semiotics and philosophers, because it is not clear what happens, what happens when transferring and what new quality arises ^[5]. Therefore, linguists try to understand the metaphor, arguing that along with the usual ("literal") metaphor, a metaphorical meaning appears in the metaphor. K.I. Alekseev in the article "Sketch of the theory of metaphor" rightly argues that there is only the appearance of a solution. "Let us give," he writes, "a characteristic example of the analysis of a metaphor, in which such an entity as "meaning" is involved in its explanation (in this case, the metaphor "Lake" is analyzed ? this is a sapphire”): The word sapphire in the direct meaning is used to distinguish a class of objects that includes certain precious stones, but not lakes; in a metaphorical sense... this word highlights a class of items that includes a lake, but not gems. Therefore, the sentence Lake ? sapphire is false if it is understood literally, and true if it is understood metaphorically ^{[7, p. 194]}. It is not difficult to see that such an explanation is an "explanation" in quotation marks: we are, in fact, returning to our own description of the phenomena of metaphor, now giving these phenomena the status of an entity"^[6].

   Indeed, what new do we learn about metaphor by saying that it has a metaphorical meaning? Alekseyev himself turns to L.S. Vygotsky for the methodology of studying metaphor, who suggests that for the analysis of a certain artistic content of interest to the researcher, which is considered by Vygotsky as a mental process, to place this content in the context of the psyche and characterize it through the work of the psyche. "Let the subject A," Vygotsky writes, "be reflected in the mirror as Aa. Of course, it would be false to say that a just as real as A, but it is otherwise real... The table and its reflection in the mirror are not equally real, but in different ways. Reflection as a reflection, as an image of a table, as a second table in the mirror is unreal, it is a ghost. But the reflection of the table as the refraction of light rays in the plane of the mirror ? is not the same material and real object as the table? Anything else would be a miracle. Then we would say: there are things (table) and their ghosts (reflection). But there are only things - (the table) and the reflection of light from the plane, and ghosts are the apparent relationships between things. Therefore, no science of mirror ghosts is possible. But this does not mean that we will never be able to explain the reflection, the ghost: if we know the thing and the laws of light reflection, we will always explain, predict, summon, change the ghost at will. This is what people who own mirrors do: they study not mirror reflections, but the movement of light rays and explain the reflection. The science of mirror ghosts is impossible, but the doctrine of light and the things that are cast and reflect it fully explains “ghosts”. The same is true in psychology ? the subjective in itself as a ghost should be understood as a consequence, as a result... ? two objective processes. The riddle of the psyche will be solved, like the riddle of a mirror, not by studying ghosts, but by studying two series of objective processes, from the interaction of which ghosts arise as apparent reflections of one in the other" ^{[2, pp. 415-416]}.

  The problem here, of course, is how to set these "objective processes". I show that, unfortunately, Vygotsky often defines them in such a way that they do not grasp the artistic content [10 11; 12]. Another difficulty, already characteristic of Alekseev's research, is the very complex structure of objective processes. So Alekseev uses M.A. Rozov's theory of relay races, the theory of classifications and the section of logic devoted to definitions to characterize the essence of metaphor. It is possible to think about the essence of a metaphor in such a space, but it is quite difficult.

The meaning of the metaphor, writes Alekseev, "let's say "The Sun is an orange", can be conveyed approximately as follows: "The sun is round and/or orange [the same as an orange]." This example clearly shows how the metaphor works: the signs of an orange (round and/or orange) are transferred to the Sun. Metaphors, thus, combine two seemingly incongruous things: an implicitly given meaningful statement that fixes the attribute belonging to the object, and an explicitly given meaningless statement in which two objects belonging to different classes are correlated. So, instead of one classification, as in the case of literal statements “A is B”, the nominative metaphor uses two. The objects correlated in the metaphor simultaneously belong to two different classes: on the one hand, the Sun is a star, on the other hand, the Sun is a round and orange object; on the one hand, an orange is a fruit, on the other hand, an orange is a round and orange object. It is the use of classifications that are incompatible with each other instead of one or two that leads to the fact that the statement is perceived by us as a metaphor.

Thus, we gave the first, very preliminary answer to the question about the relay structure of the metaphor. It includes: ? relay races of “activity" ? real actions for grouping objects (combining the Sun, the Polar Star, Altair into one group; into another group ? an orange, an apple, a pear; into the third group ? an orange, the Sun, an orange basketball);

relay races of “thinking” ? presentation of the results of these actions in a certain form (here ideas about objects, their attributes and classes appear);

relay races of "speech“ - description of these results in linguistic form (”The sun is a star“, ”Altair is a star“, ”Orange is a fruit“, ”Apple is a fruit“, ”The sun is orange“, ”Sky is blue“, ”Orange is round“, "TV ? square”, etc.).

If a person is included in all these relays at the same time, then he will be able to generate and perceive the metaphor “The sun is an orange". And we can denote the following relation of the metaphor theory outlined above to the already existing ones: it simply includes them as components ? just as a mosaic consists of separate, seemingly unrelated fragments" ^[6].

 As a matter of fact, I will also analyze the metaphor, including it, but not into the psyche and relay races of Rozov, but into artistic reality. The artistic reality of a work of art is the world of events that an artist (writer, composer) creates, expressing his attitude to the events of the ordinary world (sometimes depicting these events, sometimes elevating and idealizing, sometimes only having them in mind, because, as a rule, he solves his problems in this way, and they are very different). The viewer (reader, listener) enters these events, for this he must correctly "read" and understand the work of art, enters in order to live them and solve his problems already. At the same time, both the artist and the viewer should get aesthetic pleasure (this is a condition of artistic communication) both from artistic communication and solving their problems. Pleasure, the poles of which are just pleasant entertainment or, on the contrary, catharsis and ecstatic experience. Since the problems and life worlds of the artist and the viewer do not coincide (coincidences happen, but not so often), in general, the artistic realities that they create do not coincide either.  

I tried to show that an important role in the process of creating artistic reality is played by the problems of the artist and the viewer, as well as schemes and other semiotic constructions (including metaphors) that are created to solve these problems. Another necessary condition for the construction of artistic reality events is the creation of a new objectivity based on schemes, artistic techniques and expressive means (the concepts of "genre", "composition", "theme", "drama", "melody", "harmony", "content", "image", etc., which differ significantly for different types of art). For example, a metaphor can be understood precisely as a special scheme, a technique and an expressive means that allow, on the basis of two artistic contents (potential events), to create a new content (a new objectivity) in which they are, as it were, fused (Hegel would say "removed") both of the original artistic contents and due to a kind of emergent effect, a fundamentally new content (objectivity) is for our consciousness.      In order to make these rather general provisions more understandable and concrete, let's consider one example – the metaphor "centaur", to which the famous Israeli writer Meir Shalev turned when creating the artistic reality of the novel "Esav". 

First, we remind readers what a centaur is. First of all, the centaur is a creature that combines the image of a man and a horse. In this respect, the centaur construction is a potential metaphor. Although the centaur has the properties of a man and a horse, he is neither a man nor a horse. The centaur lives in the world of myth and is therefore perceived as a mystical character. By nature and upbringing, the centaur is usually a very wild creature, but, as an exception, on the contrary, like Chiron, very wise.

Centaurs in Greek mythology. Photo: kerchtt.ru .

Homer writes that Chiron was the most righteous of the centaurs, "and in mythology he occupied the place of the wisest and most reasonable being in Greece. He presented himself as the teacher of many outstanding characters, such as Achilles, Hercules, Perseus, Theseus and even a number of gods. Chiron was listed as the son of Kronos and his wife Filira" ^[9].             Now there is one storyline of the novel "Esau", where the centaur metaphor is widely used. The father of the main character, Abraham Levi, a baker, when he was still young, returning from the war to his hometown of Jerusalem, fell into a family of Russian immigrants and fell in love with Sarah, the only girl in the family (there were also father and brothers). He marries her and takes her to Jerusalem, where she gives birth to his twin sons. Brought up in love and freedom and, in fact, on a farm, far from big cities, Sarah cannot get along with the traditional Jerusalem society. Unable to stand the attitude towards her, including her mother-in-law, she takes her children and forcibly her husband, steals the Greek patriarch's carriage, harnesses it like a horse and runs through Israel in search of a place where she could live with her family.

"On the twelfth of July, 1927, at about three o'clock in the morning, a "Tak" suddenly burst out of the Jaffa Gate – a chic light carriage belonging to the Greek Patriarchate. She lacked, however, the usual group–the patriarch himself, his Arab coachman and a white Lipitian horse. Instead of a rider and a coachman, two children sat on the box, clutching the reins in their hands, and instead of a horse, a tall, fair-haired, broad-shouldered and beautiful young woman was harnessed to the wooden shafts… Covered with empty flour sacks and the foam of impotent rage, little frail Abraham cursed the day when he brought his wife from Galilee to Jerusalem. He no longer had the strength or patience to endure her manners – these habits of a loving mare, as the neighbors said – because of which he became a laughing stock in the courtyards of the Jewish Quarter, and the whole of Jerusalem, too... Bulis Levi, Mrs. Levi, Abraham's grumpy mother, couldn't sleep a wink either. “My daughter–in–law is with me- if you can't buy cheese from her, you will certainly get cuffs," she sighed. "I'm telling you, Abraham, this woman you brought into the house, I'll see the white crows before I'll have peace from her.”…

“Just think, Princess de Sutlach, she has a holiday all year," relatives and household ladies were indignant, having gathered at the well. ”She drinks milk all day long, even if she's not sick."

Walking through the stone alleys, accompanied by a faithful and vicious goose, brought by her from Galilee, Sarah made her way through the intricacies of customs and the thicket of decency, feeling the probing glances that measured her from head to toe and drilled into her skin. Looks surprised, lustful, curious, hostile. Passersby made way for her, pressing against the walls. Some with a nasty wet smile, some with a breathless sigh of lust, and some – splashing curses. With a confused grimace trembling at the corners of her lips, she hunched over and absorbed her broad shoulders, as if trying to shrink in size…

It was three o'clock in the morning. The young woman stopped the carriage at the city wall and looked around cautiously. Her gaze lingered on several fellahs who had come to the city before dark and were now waiting for the markets to open… Suddenly the donkeys roared, wrapped their necks and jumped on the spot in incomprehensible fear. The Fellahs, who rushed to calm them down, saw a stroller and a young blonde woman frozen between its shafts. They were terrified…

    The young woman lowered the shafts of the stroller to the ground and, trying to clear her way, furiously stamped her foot, threw her head high and let out a terrible wolf howl. In response, she immediately heard a terrible rumbling from the depths of the earth. Mighty stones suddenly rolled from the top of the city wall, frightened screams of people were heard from all sides, roosters and dogs howling, flocks of pigeons and bats rose from the cracks in the city, from the cracks in the towers, from the shaken dungeons…

–Get inside," the woman shouted to the little twins. She herself was horrified for a moment, thinking that her scream had broken the shackles of the earth, but she immediately came to her senses – her eyes froze angrily and stubbornly, and a deep crease lay between her eyebrows. The red-haired boy got scared, hurriedly crawled inside the stroller and hid behind a cloth canopy near his bound father. But his brother only opened his dark eyes wider and remained on the driver's seat.

The young mother tightened the harness to her shoulders, picked up the shafts again and squeezed them with a vengeance. Then she took a deep breath and started running. Rushing past the crumbling walls, under a rain of stones and screams, she swallowed the road with long light steps, jumped elastically over the crevices that opened under her feet and tore with her body the shroud of smells that enveloped the city, vapors that rose over burning bakeries, over burst spice jars, over stinking sewage that escaped from sewage drains, over puddles of spread coffee left over from those who came to morning prayer ahead of time. She, who had only drunk milk all her life, hated the Jerusalem custom of starting the day with a cup of coffee and now rejoiced at the misfortune of all her haters…

The woman turned her head towards the city and spat angrily. Then she smiled contentedly, wrapped up the hem of her dress, pushed it into her belt and started running again. Her bare feet moved in the dark with noiseless confidence, like the strong white wings of that owl that lived in the Karaite cemetery, de los Karaites, and which used to frighten us in childhood. Through small holes in the cloth canopy to me (we are talking about the memories of Sarah's second son. ? V.R.) envious and encouraging cries of the mentally ill could be heard – when they saw us, they pressed themselves against the bars of their windows and accompanied our flight with longing and greedy glances. I saw the blur of Jerusalem receding, the face of my twin brother Jacob, laughing, clutching at his mother's reins, saw the long, tirelessly moving wings of her hips, inhaled her abundant sweat, heard the hum of her pink lungs, the beating of a mighty heart, driving blood into her indomitable body. I imagined in my mind the strong tendons of her knees, the elastic pads of her heels, the biceps breathing under the skin of her thighs, all of her–my mother, the converted Sarah Levy, the "white witch", the "yellow-haired Jew", Sarah Levy from the Nazarov family" ^[13]. 

It is not worth much practice in constructing analogies, they are quite obvious, I will just list them. Sarah, harnessed to a carriage and running easily on Israeli soil, resembles a beautiful centaur. Here she "furiously stamped her foot, threw her head high and let out a terrible wolf howl," stones immediately fell down and the earth trembled. Before us is not just a man-horse, but a mystical being, which is also characteristic of a centaur. In comparison with the Jerusalem townspeople, Sarah is really a wild person, and a wild goose protects her, emphasizing the justice of the nickname "white witch" that has stuck to her. From the point of view of urban political correctness, Sarah's reaction to strangers who threaten her family is also wild.

"It happened on the first day of our studies (back in Jerusalem. ? V.R.), when we were brought to the Talmud Torah to the local ruby, a small, cruel and vile man, whose name I could not forget, but I do not want to mention. The mother was very excited. Although she herself was illiterate, but, unlike other illiterate neighbors in the yard, she did not reconcile herself to the statement that ignorance is written for a person. “It is impossible without learning," she kept telling us. ? We need to learn the alphabet.”

The classroom was either a basement or a pit, and its crumbling floor was covered with torn reed mats. For days the boys stood on these mats until their legs were numb, and crammed the Talmud. Yakov and I were still tied up then with that red woolen thread and, having come to the heder, refused to untie its knots and separate from each other. When Ruby pulled out the scissors and set out to separate us himself, we raised a terrible scream, got tangled in the thread and fell to the floor together.

There was a commotion. Ruby tore a cow's tail whip from the wall and shouted: “Here's razon for you, here's justice for you!” - with all his might, he whipped Yakov on the back and on the head, and deeply scratched my ear.

At noon, my mother returned from Watchtower Mountain and hurried to school to treat us to cantonico ? a hunk of bread sprinkled with salt and dipped in olive oil. Yakov refused to eat, burst into tears, and his mother immediately suspected something was wrong. She interrogated him until he walked up to the wall and pointed at the whip. His mother took off his shirt and saw the red stripes of blows.

I remember the slow turn of her broad shoulders, her arms outstretched in the air, the deep purple rising from her chest to her neck and flooding her face. There was a loud hissing in the air. It was the mother's white goose, which suddenly appeared in heavy flight over the wall of the courtyard and landed in its center. The mother's eyes flashed with an unfamiliar and burning chill. The teacher immediately realized that trouble had come, and was about to rush from his banquita to save his soul. But the goose did not fail to immediately cling to his legs, and the mother in two long steps, like a lioness, overtook him and threw him to the floor. She grabbed him by the head and began to whip him with a cow “razon” with such passion that she could not stop herself.

From fear and pain, Ruby screamed so much that all the inhabitants of the alley ran away. People were afraid to approach their mother, she was so terrible and menacing in her anger, and the goose did not let anyone approach her. Here it is: a curved neck between raised shoulder blades, huge wings half open and bent like scimitars. Do you see him? He walks around his mother, his orange beak wide open. I can still hear his voice. He's looking for a fight. Hissing and puffing, he guards his mistress.

Mother was like crazy. Molly Sieram and Rebbe Alter's wife in one person. She jumped on the unconscious teacher, as she was, in wooden shoes, shouting: “I'm a Tatar, I'm a Tatar!” ? and other words that no one understands. She was spewing out all the anger that had accumulated in her. She picked him up, put him on wobbly legs and began to beat his head against the wall. The sound of the blows was dull and pleasant. Chunks of blood-stained plaster fell to the floor.

If they hadn't hurried to call his father urgently, Ruby would probably already be in the next world. The father approached the mother, and everyone saw that even he was afraid of her. But as soon as she saw him, she immediately calmed down, sat down on the floor like a child, legs apart, shook her straw head from side to side and began to cry and beat her chest with her fists, like an Arab mourner, out of shame and anger that had not yet cooled down. Meanwhile, Dr. Korkidi appeared and took care of the teacher. In the end, the father, pale and trembling with shame, persuaded the mother to get up. She put Yakov on her shoulders, took me on her arm, wrapped her other arm around her father's narrow shoulders, and in this form we returned home.

In the evening, Dr. Korkidi came, scolded his mother for her temper, treated the traces of beatings on Yakov's body and said something to his father that we could not hear.

It was then, as my mother told us much later, when we were already young men, that she finally decided to flee Jerusalem…We fled the city on the night of the great earthquake, July 12, 1927. Everyone was sure that Father, mother, Yakov and I were buried under the ruins. It was only two weeks later, when the piles of stones were finally dismantled and connected one with another? memories with gossip and that little thing with this one?that everyone realized what had happened. But by that time we were already far from Jerusalem… from Bulisa Levi, whom, you're right, I really should call grandma, but I don't have the slightest desire for that." ^[15]. 

It is not difficult to understand the artistic techniques that Shalev uses, creating and deploying the centaur metaphor. The first is the image of Sarah, harnessed to a carriage, rushing across the country. This is both a metaphor and a scheme. The scheme, I show, is invented by a person, allows him to solve the problems facing him, sets a new reality that opens up the opportunity to act in a new way ^[3]. As a scheme, the image of Sarah allows you to endow Sarah with unusual abilities and character, as well as to set a new reality ? Sarah is a centaur (she behaves like a centaur). The second technique is a smart and powerful goose guarding Sarah. The third is a coincidence: Sarah stamped her foot in anger and at the same moment, quite by chance, an earthquake begins. Another trick: Sarah grew up in a family of Russian immigrants in an atmosphere of freedom and love, and at the same time almost completely isolated from the usual culture with its social requirements, restrictions, conventionality and partly hypocrisy.    

It may seem that Sarah the centaur is just a combination of two types of properties - a young woman and a beautiful animal (horse). No, this is not so, by themselves these properties are incompatible, belong to different realities. In artistic reality, a new objectivity (reality) is created on the basis of two or more types of properties (realities). After all, Sarah, even acting unusually, is not a horse and not a wild animal. She is a person, her actions are quite understandable, but of course, in the light of the life context (world) that Shalev set and built. You can't help but admire Sarah: this admiration comes from both Shalev and the reader. In the first, the writer himself admits, in one interview he says:

"In Greek mythology, there is a nymph named Atalanta. As far as I can tell, heroines like her appear in my books every now and then: in "Esava", in "Fontanelle", to a lesser extent in "Russian Novel". This is a physically strong woman, of mighty build, of enormous stature. I've been thinking about her since I first read The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves at the age of 15—and Atalanta, as you remember, was the only woman among the Argonauts. I guess I have some kind of fixation. I have never met her in my life, but I do not stop dreaming about her" ^[16]. 

However, one day, the writer later recalled, he met a woman very similar to his dream, but she did not want to communicate with Shalev and left. I think that I also admire Sarah, she is something (it is very difficult to define something) reminds me of my wife, especially when she was young, but even now. Maybe this "something" will become a little clear from the episode of Abraham's first meeting with Sarah (he walked many days after the war to Jerusalem through the desert and foreign lands).

"Suddenly his skin went goosebumps. He looked around and saw a young woman lying on the ground in a rough, dirty dress, who was sleeping in the sparse shade of a plum tree. He quietly approached her, looked at her – and his soul was filled with delight and longing. She was tall, fair-haired and broad-shouldered, and her chest rose in deep and measured breathing. A wave of golden hair shaded his forehead, lying on broad blond eyebrows, the likes of which he had previously seen only over the tired, reddened eyes of Russian pilgrims in Jerusalem. The woman slept with her arms and legs spread out freely, which was a sign of carelessness and childhood, but Abraham could not read the signs of the female body. He was used to the dull and submissive presence of the little Jerusalem women, and now he was completely overcome with excitement from her unusual color, healthy clean body and long hips that loomed under the dress. He had not yet foreseen what would happen in the future, and at that sweet and necessary moment, without which no love can do, "the moment when reason dies like a butterfly in winter," he came even closer, so that his shadow fell on her face, and said: ?

“Shalom Aleichem” is soft and a little hoarse, because his throat and palate are parched from intense desire and surprise.

The lying woman jumped up like a deer from the thicket of her dream and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Startled, Abraham began to look around and finally saw a straw head peeking out from behind a basalt boulder, and wide-open eyes, the blue of which darkened and became alien – frightened and threatening at the same time.

– I'm a friend. I am a Jew!  he exclaimed in embarrassment. – Don't be afraid.

She straightened up and smoothed out her threadbare dress. Abraham looked at her and smiled.

–Shalom," he repeated, but the woman did not answer and did not approach him. They stood there for a while, testing each other, but the rain began to fall, and a tense expression appeared on her face.

– Di kachkes, di kachkes! – she cried out in fright. – My father and mother will kill me!

The voice that came out of that big body stunned Abraham. It was the voice of a girl, not a young woman. But the girls are from the tribe of giants. He looked around again and only now noticed the geese grazing in the field – like white spots through the curtains of rain. Rushing after them, he saw that the girl was running barefoot in front of him, and her steps were light and wide, like a desert wolf, and her breathing was deep and noiseless, like a wild donkey, and her whole body was so shapely, beautiful and strong that his eyes darkened with fear and passion. Together they surrounded the geese, rounded them up and led them to the village in the continuous rain" ^[14].

Probably, without admiration (similarly, rejection, irony, fear, love and other experiences), it is impossible to build a new objectivity, meaning catharsis or simply strong feelings, in art. Metaphors help to express these feelings and experiences, to embody them in events and characters of artistic reality. In the novel "Esav" it feels good. Do techniques and expressive means help in this? Of course, nevertheless, by themselves they do not set such feelings and experiences, their source is the artist (viewer), it is not for nothing that they say that art is always a mystery and a miracle. I will offer a few more distinctions.

A latent and revealed metaphor. When I first read the novel, it did not occur to me that in the image of Sarah you can see a centaur. But after listening to an interesting report on Vera Danilova's metaphor recently, I kind of got an epiphany. However, later I realized that without a special reconstruction revealing the metaphor, it is difficult to discern the latter. Question, was there a centaur metaphor in the novel when I first read it? On the one hand, it was clearly there, otherwise I would hardly have been able to reconstruct it, on the other ? because I didn't see this metaphor. Doesn't it make sense then to separate these two cases? Latent metaphor ? this is an organization of the contents of artistic reality that allows for the reconstruction of metaphor; the revealed metaphor appears as a result of such reconstruction. In other words, the original artistic optics did not allow me to see the metaphor, it existed for me in a latent state; after conducting this research, I enriched my optics and saw the centaur metaphor.          Metaphor and metaphorical discourse. One thing is a separate metaphor, another is narratives from many mutually agreed metaphors and other artistic constructions agreed with metaphors. It is the second case that we meet in Shalev's novel. The metaphor of the centaur and the metaphor of the goose as Sarah's protector, and the metaphor of baked bread as the source of life, its birth, flowering and death, and the metaphor of Russian immigrants as the original, naive, unwritten Christian faith and many other metaphors and non?metaphors - but everything is connected, coordinated, supports each other. This is the discourse, and metaphorical, since it is metaphors that play the main role. The artistic reality of the novel is based on this discourse.

Scheme and metaphor. The analysis shows that the metaphor ? this is always a scheme, but not every scheme is a metaphor. All the metaphors in "Esava" are at the same time schemes. But it is important to distinguish them by function and structure. But there are many schemes in the novel that are not metaphors. For example, the scheme of young Sarah sleeping on the ground is not a metaphor, but a simple narrative. The main schemes in Plato's "Feast" ("androgynous", "bearing spiritual fruits") also vivid metaphors ^{[4, pp. 59-78]}, but, for example, the scheme of the Moscow metro is not a metaphor, but an ordinary narrative (the idea of a trip in this case works as setting the meaning of symbols – entrance, exit, transfer, movement).

The concept of metaphor and distinction proposed here, in my opinion, can be transferred with a certain correction to other subject areas (philosophy, science, esotericism, etc.).