Question about taking things liturally.

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Lol, me too. It toke me over a year to figure that one out. I found "the answer" to be: "Not Much". That seemed to work.
Yet, this just lead to an even bigger conversation!

Nice one, now that you're saying it, it seems to be a really good answer.. not as definitive as "nothing", but not a thruthful answer that bores other people. Thanks for the tip. :)

I guess the problem to figuring out the "whats up" type phrases is that if we dont use it, we wont hear what the usual answer is. Because we are allways the one answering. lol.

Why do people use metaphors anyay? Isnt it simular to just say what you mean? I tend to think because they dont really understand what it is they are actually saying.

What a frellin pile of dren these Farhbots come up with. (j/k)

I am a verbal and visual thinker.

As much left brained as right.

yet more at home using metaphor and figurative language than the concrete and literal.

I'm also mostly a literal and concrete thinker.

I like using metaphors if they make logical sense, though.

I guess I should say that I'm not knocking figurative language. I appreciate it very much, but when I'm in serious mode I tend to communicate in literal terms.

okthxbye.

Yes I am ok with metaphors if they make logical sense. I often will relate things to stuff I understand like often will relate things about the human mind to how computers work. And I find fantasy stories that are metaphors for things in real fasinating. Im not sure if that is exactly what a metaphor is but hopefull you understand me.

People use metaphors because they convey more information and also they are linguistically beautiful. I try to curb my metaphor use on here but out in the world I use them often because they just say more. To me, trying to speak literally and simplistically feels as limiting as using the "newspeak" from Orwell's "1984". Speaking (or writing) without them isn't easier. It's harder.

"Not much" is actually the expected answer. So keep using it.

I take expressions literally most of the time. xD

I don't have a big problem with this because I majored in communications in college and always did understand the concept that somethings are meant as figurative expressions and not literal expressions.

That doesn't mean more often than not I've misunderstood something intended to be figurative rather than literal.

A funny one was when I temped at a construction job. The guy I was assigned to made some goop (cement?) to use on the floor. Once mixed, he told me to keep it from drying out by "baptizing" it every few minutes.

I dumped a bucket of water into the mix. He went ballistic. My church baptizes by immersion in water. He intended that I only sprinkle water on the goop. I didn't get the correct translation of "baptize" from his instructions.

As a kid I took things literally a lot, but now I've learned not to.

However, sometimes I still do think kind of concrete, or just think that a metaphor is silly, though I know what is meant by it. Eg. to "stand as if you were fallen down from the moon". In fact I'm not sure what it exactly means, but probably standing like "zoning out" when you're expected to do something that should be evident to do.
I mean, it's not possible to fall down from the moon, since it has gravity.
And even if it were possible, you would certainly not stand up or even be alive...
So, I still think it's a silly saying.

(Don't know if it exists in English. I don't hear it very often in Danish either, but my dad used to say it to me if I just stood in my own thoughts without doing anything, when he eg. thought it would be evident for me to figure out by myself that I should help with the dishes or something like that; but I think it was kind of zoning out in an aspie manner, but we didn't know about AS at that time).

Sometimes I think someones serious when they're joking.
I know metaphors so I don't take them literally, but I do if I don't know the metaphor.