A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like" or "as".^[1]

Unlike a metaphor, a simile can be as precise as the user needs it to be, to explicitly predicate a single feature of a target or to vaguely predicate an under-determined and open-ended body of features. Empirical research supports the observation that similes are more likely to be used with explicit explanations of their intended meaning;^[2] this offers some support to the claim that similes are preferred if a user wants to associate an unusual or out-of-the-ordinary property with a target.^{[clarification needed]}

For a list of words relating to similes, see the English similes category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Uses[link]

In literature[link]

Similes are widely used in literature for their expressive nature:

• Curley was flopping like a fish on a line.^[3]
• The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric.^[4]
• Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.^[5]

Dickens, in the opening to 'A Christmas Carol', says "But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile."

Using 'like'[link]

A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis implicit. In the implicit case, characterized by the use of 'like' to connect the two ideas, the simile leaves an audience to determine for themselves which features of the target are being predicated:

• She is like a dynamo.
• For He is like a refiner's fire.
• Her eyes twinkled like stars
• He fights like a lion.
• He runs like a cheetah.

Using 'as'[link]

The use of as makes the simile explicit, by clearly stating the feature predicated of the target:

• She walks as gracefully as a cat.
• He was as brave as a lion in fight.
• He was as tough as a bull.
• He was as smart as an owl.
• She was as busy as a bee.
• He was as Cool as Conan

Without 'like' or 'as'[link]

Similes are sometimes made without using the words "like" or "as". This often occurs when making comparisons of differing values:^[6]

• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:" – William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
• "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park." – Mater, Cars
• "How this Herculean Roman does become / The carriage of his chafe." - William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra' Act I, sc. 3.

See also[link]

• Analogy
• Description
• Metaphor
• Hypocatastasis
• Figure of speech

References[link]

Cary D. Tennis (born September 11, 1953), an American author and columnist. He is best known for his work as an advice columnist in his column "Since You Asked," which appears on the website Salon.com.

Personal[link]

Tennis was born in Portsmouth, Virginia.

He is based in San Francisco and is married.

Career[link]

Education[link]

Cary Tennis graduated cum laude from the University of Miami in 1976 with a B.A. in literature and journalism and entered the masters program in creative writing at San Francisco State University in 1978. He passed his oral examinations (Wallace Stevens, William Faulkner and Vladimir Nabokov) and had his creative thesis approved ("The Riverwood House and Other Stories"), but he never completed the degree program.^[1]

Professional career[link]

After university, Tennis worked in the mailroom of Western Electric in San Francisco, worked as a bike messenger, formed a new wave band called the Repeat Offenders (wrote, sang, played guitar), and worked as a rock journalist for the SF Weekly.^[2]

In the late 1990s he spent five years in a clerical job at Chevron. In 1999 he started working for Salon Magazine, first as copy editor, then copy chief and from 2001 as Salon's resident advice columnist.

Musical[link]

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Tennis played in a rock and roll group known as The Repeat Offenders.^[3]

Recent Health[link]

Cary Tennis announced in his column of November 19, 2009, that he has been diagnosed with a chordoma, a rare malignant tumor that usually occurs in the spine and base of the skull.

Column[link]

Tennis' "Since You Asked" column began in 2001, and was based on a previous column by Garrison Keillor^[4] entitled Mr. Blue which appeared in Salon's Books section. In an unusual format for advice columns, "Since you Asked" publishes long letters, sometimes of 1,000 words, and equally long responses.^[5]

In the column, Tennis makes occasional reference to his own life, both as a suffering cancer patient and a recovering alcoholic.

Tennis writes of his craft: "I'm no expert. I know the same things we all know," he says. "What I'm offering is, you know, good writing! Good writing can clarify overlooked or obscure areas of emotion. With sufficient craft, these things can be illuminated, and in a way that's pleasurable to read. Plus I'm kind. I offer sympathy to people who are in trouble." ^[3]

Tennis writes of America: "Nothing has changed structurally; we are still a hateful, war-waging culture that denigrates women, celebrates killing, despoils the planet, plunders the resources of less powerful people, keeps a permanent underclass in virtual economic slavery and wages imperialist wars abroad. We're still the same country we were when I was growing up in the 1960s.".^[6]

Bibliography[link]

• Since You Asked, (2007), ISBN 978-0-9793270-0-1, (a collection of articles from his column)

Links[link]

• "Since You Asked" column, Salon.com
• Chris Colin, "On the Job: Cary Tennis, Salon.com's long-running advice columnist, hit bottom so you don't have to," The San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 2007
• Book review of Since You Asked: The Best of Salon.com's Cary Tennis

References[link]