Milan Kundera describes a woman entering a sauna and proclaiming five things about her likes, and her dislikes. Kundera uses the moment to comment on an aspect of humanity, as opposed to just allowing for her actions to sit alone.
“And it isn’t enough for us to identify with our selves, it is necessary to do so passionately, to the point of life and death. Because only in this way can we regard ourselves not merely as a variant of a human prototype but as being with its own irreplaceable essence.” Immortality, Milan Kundera
Similarly, Murakami in After Dark uses a sponge as a metaphor to capture how people’s words get lost in connections with one another. He carries us into the meeting of two people in a large Japanese city who share with one another their disconnections in the past. I believe this metaphor touches a universal moment.
Sponge
I feel as if the
sponge never
existed between us
words flowed as you
played gently with my hair
flowing along your
strong fingers meeting where my ear met my cheek
traveling on the curves of my earlobe
and spiralling spiralling into me
– jl
Lights in the Hand 