In I IS AN OTHER, James Geary shows how every aspect of our lives, from the power of advertisements to the housing bubble bust to President Obama’s political rhetoric, is molded by metaphor.
 
For lovers of language and fans of Blink and Freakonomics, James Geary’s I IS AN OTHER: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World (Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers; $19.99/$25.99 Can; ISBN 13: 9780061710285; on-sale 2/8/2011) offers a fascinating look at metaphors and their influence in every aspect of our lives, from art to medicine, psychology to the stock market. Witty, persuasive, and original, I is an Other showcases how a simple way with words, which in the past was considered only a tool for poets, is really a driving force in our society.
 
We utter about one metaphor for every 10 to 25 words, or about six metaphors a minute. “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” is one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines and one of the most well known metaphors in literature. But metaphor is much more than a mere literary device employed by love-struck poets when they refer to their girlfriends as interstellar masses of incandescent gas. In this fascinating and entertaining book, Geary demonstrates how metaphor affects financial decision-making, how metaphor lurks behind effective advertisements, how metaphor inspires learning and discovery, and how metaphor can be used as a tool to achieve emotional insight and psychological change.
 
The book’s unusual title comes from 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who believed that metaphor—the equation of one thing with another, completely different thing, of I with an other—was the basis not just of poetry but of all creative thought.
 
In I Is an Other, Geary takes readers from Aristotle’s investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Along the way, he demonstrates how new research in the social and cognitive sciences makes it increasingly plain that metaphor influences our attitudes, beliefs, and actions in surprising, hidden, and often oddball ways. He details how metaphor has finally leapt off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of our stream of consciousness.
 
James Geary is the author of the New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase and Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists, both of which celebrate the witty and thought-provoking art of the aphorism. Geary is editor of Ode, a magazine about optimism and positive news, and a regular contributor to Popular Science. He is the former editor of the European edition of Time, based in London. 
 
To watch Geary’s recent TED talk on metaphor, visit:
 http://www.ted.com/talks/james_geary_metaphorically_speaking.html.  
James Geary can discuss: 
· Why metaphors (in the form of visual imagery) are crucial to the creation of memorable ads and successful brands
· How metaphors are used in financial commentary and how they can dramatically affect personal financial decisions
· The essential role of metaphorical thinking in business innovation 
· What metaphor tells us about everything from motivating others to navigating office politics
· How metaphor can be used to form public opinion and shape political debate
· What life is like without metaphor, as experienced by some people with autism spectrum disorders, who have difficulty using and understanding figurative language 
 
I IS AN OTHER will open your eyes to the secret life of metaphor and its role in swinging elections, moving markets, and powerfully influencing daily life. I hope you will consider it for features and reviews and its author for interviews. I look forward to speaking with you soon.
 
Best regards,
Annie Weiss
Assistant Publicist
HarperCollinsPublishers
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