However, while language is indeed an ineffective tool in conveying the complexity of the material world, it is also a tool that I have. I came to this writing with a fear of metaphor, grounded in feminist critique of the patriarchal and imperialist power of language as representation. I will be mindful of the implicit ideologies embedded into certain metaphors and try to invent alternatives. One day in the past I wrote urgently: I will be as attentive as possible to my use of metaphor in my writing. Metaphors reveal connections that have become embedded within a culture to the point of passing unremarked. If you directly translate a metaphor from another language into the one we are speaking, chances are it will carry the shape of the idea but not the historical context. In living with an awareness of the entanglement of matter and meaning, words have consequences.
