The Prophet

[rayheinrich]

Well, I'm aware of the use of the eye in cinema and yep, I've seen all
those except the Maya Deren one (which I've now put on my little list),
but I still can't see the cliche, sorry.  I'm not trying to be obtuse
or defensive, it's just that you can't call an eye a cliche, dude,
we've all got them. I'll maybe stretch so far as to allow it as a trope,
but that's really stretching.  It's like saying you can't hug
someone with your arms.

Yep, understand. We're leaving the territory of cliché subjectivity
and entering the realm of metaphor fuzziness. I'd sooner try to delineate jello*.
How narrow/wide/deep/shallow?, what symbol does this sign really signify?, where
in your wicked Uncle Ernie's mind is the fiddling?

"The idea of vision as literal eyes, discarded on the floor.

Is fine with me.

It reminded me of all those movies where some myopic person (a vast metaphor
in and of itself) looses their glasses and, while blindly looking (also a vast
metaphor) for them, steps on them. Sometimes a villain or some such jerks them
off and steps on them. The crunching sound always elicits groans from the audience.
I remember a horror movie where a pair of binoculars was modified so that moving
the thumb-wheel to focus them drove a four inch spike into each of your eyes.
How's that for metaphor!  

Yes, it's not a cliché, it's an ancient idiom. I hereby retract my criticism.  




    *delineated