388 MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
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First page of National Geographic article, June 1986, p. 702. Text by Peter
Jaret, photograph by Lennart Nilsson.
titled "New Weapon in the War Against Schistosomiasis", and the
sexy picture has a legend that begins "Public enemy, public
weapon.3
Aggressive metaphors in language not only reflect the quality of
our life, but affect it as well. Let us turn to our writers for a diagnosis. The Israeli novelist Amos Oz has articulated one aspect of this
problem:
Contrary to the sentimental, romantic cliche", poets do not handle
words as a lover handles bouquets. They treat words the way a bacteriologist treats germs. As a result of their work and their intimate,
microscopic contact with language and its implications, they are
sometimes able to detect disease or the threat of an epidemic before
others do. Here is a small example. For several years, we have been
able to hear, in colloquial Hebrew, that the love life of the Israeli
male is conducted somewhat like this: He meets a bombshell, puts her
into a state of preparedness, and then lifts her off on a missile. Unless,
that is, he gets torpedoed along the way.
