The Literary Mind.pdf

CREATIVE BLENDS 61
BLENDED SPACES
In the tale of the ox and the donkey, the specific agent in the blended space who
develops the cunning plan has four legs and enormous ears, eats barley, sleeps
on well-sifted straw, and talks. We are not to project the specific attributes four
legs, enormous ears, eats well-winnowed barley, and sleeps on sifted straw onto
Shahrazad in the target space. Talks is projected onto Shahrazad in the target
space, or rather, talks is returned to the target whence it came.
One of the great cognitive advantages of a blended space is its freedom
to deal in all the vivid specifics—ploughing, straw, barns, planning, talking,
deceiving—of both its input spaces. Although the blended space will conform
to its own logic, it is free of various constraints of possibility that restrict the input
spaces. By means of these specifics from both input spaces, the blended space
can powerfully activate both spaces and keep them easily active while we do cognitive
work over them to construct meaning. Upon that circus of lively information,
the mind can dwell and work to develop a projection.
Let us consider a literary example, Dante's celebrated portrayal of Bertran
de Born in the Inferno. While living, Bertran had instigated strife between the
king of England and the king's son and heir, tearing father and son apart. When
seen in hell, Bertran consists, spectacularly, of two parts: a headless body and its
separate head. The body carries the head in its hand, lifting the head manually
to talk to Dante on his journey through hell. Bertran cites his punishment as the
appropriate analogue of his sin:
Because I parted people so joined,
I carry my brain, alas, separated
from its root, which is in this trunk.
Thus is to be seen in me the retribution.
Perch'io parti' cosi giunte persone,
partito porto il meo cerebro, lasso!
dal suo principio ch'e in questo toncone.
Cosi s'osserva in me lo contrapasso.
This is an impossible blending, in which a talking human being has an
unnaturally divided body. The blend has many parts. First, there is a conventional
metaphoric understanding: Dividing people socially is understood metaphorically
as dividing a joined physical object. This metaphoric projection is not
at all novel. We can say conventionally that a home wrecker has "come between"