Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Stairways taken, literally and figuratively, No. 2

According to the Urban Dictionary online, People often confuse literally with figuratively. Literally is a much misused adverb, often for emphasis. So, that's what I'm doing with it here, on purpose. And Urban Dictionary defines figuratively as "What everybody means when they say "literally." I suppose that's what I'm doing here, too, because literally is defined by Merriam Webster online as in a literal sense or manner, actually, while figuratively is defined there as: representing by a figure or resemblance. And, of or relating to representation of form or figure in art. Now, I've confused myownself, doggone it. Let's see if I can straighten this out successfully. It's a play on words, y'all, because I took the stairs (walked) and I took the stairs (photographed). Both things actually happened. This idea of mine all hinges on the definition of take from Merriam Webster online. One is use as a means of transportation or progression. Another is to obtain as the result of a special procedure, in this case photography. Whew. Now I'm spreading these photos out over five days starting with Monday, August 19, 2013.
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I figuratively took these stairs, as in I took this photograph but, as you can see there on the left, the gate is padlocked, so no walking up allowed to any passersby. Looks like no owner literally takes any time with this stairway, making this stairway interesting to photograph.
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The next stairway I walked by, controlled by at least one vigilant human, thereby rendering this particular stairway boring to photograph--I only did it to contrast with the other one.

2 comments:

Tanya Breese said...

i love that gate!

Randy said...

Love that first shot. It's so beautiful and thought provoking.