I Am a Strange Loop

Now how can one statement speak on two levels at once? How can a second meaning lie lurking inside a first meaning? You know the answer as well as I do, dear reader, but let me spell it out anyway. Just as in the muddy-boots situation, there is a very simple, very loud, very salient, very obvious analogy between the two parties, and this means that any statement made about X will be (or at least can be) heard as being about Y at the same time. The X/Y mapping, the analogy, the partial isomorphism — whatever you wish to call it — carries the meaning efficiently and reliably from one framework over to the other.

Let’s look at this mode of communication in a slightly more delicate romantic situation. Audrey, who is not sure how serious Ben is about her, “innocently” turns the conversation to their mutual friends Cynthia and Dave, and “innocently” asks Ben what he thinks of Dave’s inability to commit to Cynthia. Ben, no fool, swiftly senses the danger here, and so at first he is wary about saying anything specific since he may incriminate himself even though talking “only” about Dave, but then he also realizes that this danger gives him an opportunity to convey to Audrey some things that he hasn’t dared to raise with her directly. Accordingly, Ben replies with a calculated air of nonchalance that he can imagine why Dave might be hesitant to commit himself, since, after all, Cynthia is so much more intellectual than Dave is. Ben is hoping that Audrey will pick up on the hint that since she is so much more involved in art than he is, that’s why he’s been hesitant to commit himself as well. His hint is carried to her implicitly but clearly via the rather strong couple-to-couple analogy that both Audrey and Ben have built up in their heads over the past several months without ever breathing a word of it to each other. Ben has managed to talk very clearly about himself although without ever talking directly about himself, and what’s more, both he and Audrey know this is so.

The preceding situation might strike you as being very contrived, thus leaving you with the impression that seeing one romantic situation as “coding” for another is a fragile and unlikely possibility. But nothing could be further from the truth. If two people are romantically involved (or even if they aren’t, but at least one of them feels there’s a potential spark), then almost any conversation between them about any romance whatsoever, no matter who it involves, stands a good chance of being heard by one or both of them as putting a spotlight on their own situation. Such boomeranging-back is almost inevitable because romances, even very good ones, are filled with uncertainty and yearning. We are always on the lookout for clues or insights into our romantic lives, and analogies are among the greatest sources of clues and insights. Therefore, to notice an analogy between ourselves and another couple that is occupying center stage in our conversation is pretty much a piece of cake handed to us on a silver platter. The crucial question is whether it tastes good or not.

The Latent Ambiguity of the Village Baker’s Remarks

Indirect reference of the sort just discussed is often artistically exploited in literature, where, because of a strong analogy that readers easily perceive between Situations A and B, lines uttered by characters in Situation A can easily be heard as applying equally well to Situation B. Sometimes the characters in Situation A are completely unaware of Situation B, which can make for a humorous effect, whereas other times the characters in Situation A are simultaneously characters in Situation B, but aren’t aware of (or aren’t thinking about) the analogy linking the two situations they are in. The latter creates a great sense of irony, of course.