The Business of Fancydancing Metaphors and Similes

Grammar and the Body

The body is frequently used for metaphorical purposes, such as calling Chicago the city of big shoulders for example. Grammar is also a go-to mechanism for similes such as, for instance, her dark gaze was like an exclamation point. The best of both worlds is combining the two, which is what the author does here, though admittedly the imagery is not as immediately accessible:

”We both smile at the voices we give each other, the way the color of our hair becomes a noun, the dark of our eyes becomes possessive.”

The Economics of Fancydancing

The title work of this collection is a poem. A poem about a dancing, but also clearly a poem about business. The economics of fancydancing where money is a metaphor:

“a twenty is a promise

that can last all night long, a promise reach-

ing into the back pocket of unfamiliar Levis.

…

Money

is a tool, putty to fill all the empty

spaces, a ladder so we can reach

for more. A promise is just like money.”

The Hidden Danger of Pop Culture Metaphors

The collection was published in 1992. Pop culture references immediately recognizable then would not necessarily be so today. And in another twenty years even more references would be even less identifiable to an even smaller percentage of the population. But what is really weird about including the poem “No Drugs or Alcohol Allowed” in a 1992 collection is that already by then, the reference within this simile was severely on the way down from its height of recognizability in the 1970’s:

“I think Seymour

looks exactly

Like Charles Bronson”

[Charles Bronson was an actor who finally attained stardom in the 1970’s as an action hero after toiling in secondary roles for twenty years.]

“Spokane Tribal Celebration, September 1987”

This poem kicks off with an amazingly precise construction of metaphorical imagery. Note the way that the author builds up the imagery of his metaphor layer by layer, adding detail and drawing it out so that by the time the period arrives, the portrait is complete and unambiguous. This is a metaphor one can easily picture in their minds and, of course, that will only serve to help with facilitating understanding. [The unusual punctuation at the end of the first line and beginning of the second is actually part of the poem, not a typo.]

“This is the first powwow I

‘ve been to in five years, night

falling like an old blanket

on shoulders of turquoise women

selling sawdust jewelry and dreams.”

"Distances"

As always in an Alexie work, the tension between white American society and Indian (his word) society eventually bubbles to the surface in explicit ways. “Distances” is perhaps the strangest entry in this collection, a random series of unconnected and disconnected thoughts, often comprising one sentence paragraphs including the ultimate in random strangeness: “EDWALL, WASHINGTON – 186,000 mile.” However, it is also the part of the book where one can find—arguably, of course—the two most memorable similes in the entire text:

“There is nothing as white as the white girl an Indian boy loves.”

“Remember this: `Electricity is lightning pretending to be permanent.’”