[General] Circle around and close in

[ianian]

"When we take pleasure in reading these stories we shouldn’t be ashamed of ourselves. We are circling round something important, though not quite closing in on it as yet. It’s not that we need to stop, we just need to do it better."

Apparently when you circle around, you have a target and when you close in, you are moving towards the target. The implied metaphoric thinking could be ATTACK, but in this case achieving a goal seems more relevant. Could someone dwell more on this image-based sentence, giving more information about the two image-based actions? Thanks in advance.

Ian

 

[emsr2d2]

Before we continue, please click on Edit Post and insert the spaces between words which were lost when you copied and pasted the text. Remember to click Save afterwards.

 

[ianian]

Thanks, corrected.

 

[Tdol]

I think they're OK, though you could make it less of an attack if you changed the second to something like not getting there yet.

 

[jutfrank]

Apparently when you circle around, you have a target and when you close in, you are moving towards the target. The implied metaphoric thinking could be ATTACK, but in this case achieving a goal seems more relevant. Could someone dwell more on this image-based sentence, giving more information about the two image-based actions?

I understand the metaphor to be 'capture'.

For example, if you circle around an animal, your intention (the goal you want to achieve) could be either to attack and kill, or simply to trap it. Either way, I think there's a goal of capturing.

 

[ianian]

Thanks, Tdol and Jutfrank. It seems in a typical context, the "attack" metaphor is called for. But in a different culture, "circling around" and "closing in for" don't necessarily have that connotation.

 

[ianian]

Hi, Tdol. Long time no talk. I was here years ago, but my old account disappeared, so I am a newbie now.
Sorry to ask where to find information about how to send a private message. It seems it's quite different from years ago.

 

[GoesStation]

New accounts don't get private messaging until they've sent ten messages. You're almost there!