Some writers should be forbidden by law from using metaphors. This example of a felony metaphor abuse was perpetrated in today’s New York Times by Thomas Friedman, author of THE EARTH IS FLAT.
Indeed, there is a huge famine breaking out all over India today, an incredible hunger. But it is not for food. It is a hunger for opportunity that has been pent up like volcanic lava under four decades of socialism, and it’s now just bursting out with India’s young generation.
I’ve often said “leave metaphors for the pros.” Although Friedman is a pro he really blew this one. Linking hunger to volcanic activity is stupid. Besides it’s magma under the earth and lava once it’s out.
It reads like something the RWA would ban, with obviously salacious phrases like “hunger” and “pent up” and “bursting out.” And in India, no less, where we all know the women conveniently wear bed sheets wrapped around their bodies!