"The folly of mistaking a paradox
or a discovery, a metaphor for a
proof, a torrent of verbiage for a
spring of capital truths, and
oneself for an oracle, is inborn in
us."
-- Paul Valery, 1895

Heh. Is it folly? Or are we all oracles, proving existence through metaphor
and bringing things to light through paradox?

Anne Carson writes:

[...]

Lots of people including Aristotle think error
an interesting and valuable mental event.
In his discussion of metaphor in the Rhetoric
Aristotle says there are 3 kinds of words.
Strange, ordinary and metaphorical.

"Strange words simply puzzle us;
ordinary words convey what we know already;
it is from metaphor that we can get hold of something new & fresh"
(Rhetoric, 1410b10-13).
In what does the freshness of metaphor consist?
Aristotle says that metaphor causes the mind to experience itself

in the act of making a mistake.

[...]

From the true mistakes of metaphor a lesson can be learned.

[...]

Metaphors teach the mind

to enjoy error
and to learn
from the juxtaposition of what is and what is not the case.

[...]

Here is an example.
It is a fragment of ancient Greek lyric
that contains an error of arithmetic.
The poet does not seem to know
that 2 + 2 = 4.

Alkman fragment 20:
[?] made three seasons, summer
and winter and autumn third
and fourth spring when
there is blooming but to eat enough
is not.

Alkman lived in Sparta in the 7th century b.c.
Now Sparta was a poor country
and it is unlikely
that Alkman led a wealthy or well-fed life there.
This fact forms the background of his remarks
which end in hunger.

Hunger always feels
like a mistake.
Alkman makes us experience this mistake
with him
by an effective use of computational error.

[...]

Alkman breaks the rules of arithmetic
and jeopardizes grammar
and messes up the metrical form of his verse
in order to draw us into this fact.
At the end of the poem the fact remains
and Alkman is probably no less hungry.

[...]

Heh.