One of the problems I run into when talking to people about symbolism is the whole problem of the literal versus metaphor idea.

And I've talked about this a little bit before, but I think I want to dive into that problem and show you guys that in fact, you know, it isn't very much of a problem once you realize that there is no such thing as literal.

This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world.

Now, of course, I already hear a bunch of people screaming. No, he's saying that the Bible didn't happen,

that everything is just a metaphor. No, exactly. I'm trying to break that duality. I'm really

trying to destroy it because it is really not useful in understanding how meaning occurs and how

things manifest themselves. Now, when I say that there's no such thing as literal, what I mean by

literal is this strange pervasive idea that is still there in the West it seems that

there is such a thing as a direct description of something, that there is such a thing

as a description of something which is not bound up in meaning

and which is not bound up in narrative or an image, that it is somehow a, a description,

a meaningless description, that there is no, it doesn't, it's not, it's not already

imbibed in meaning. And you get that all the time. And when you talk to

people, they ask you, you know, especially in terms of a story, in terms of the Bible, especially

people will argue over whether or not the description in the Bible are literal. Now, I, to be honest with you, at this point in my life,

at this point in my understanding, I don't, I don't see what that even means. I can understand

in the way that people talk about it, what it is they seem to inferring that it is somehow a neutral

description of reality that is not in that doesn't already have

value or meaning in late in it but i don't understand how that is possible because when you

describe something no matter what it is you describe you have to describe it you have to have a purpose

to describe it you need a frame in order to talk about something because I like I've

told you a million times in like I keep repeating it's that reality is too big. There are too many

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