METAphor and METAnalysis

​In class we were talking about the idea of “Meta” and how people use the word. When Mr. Yee brought it up in class I remember myself being the only one to slightly being able to describe what exactly Meta meant. I gave the one example that I could remember metaphilosophy. Somehow this had come up in my English class last year with Mr. Arndt, and he went into detail about how metaphilosophy is philosophy about philosophy. Actually this could relate to my war philosophy part of my War blog post. That is besides the point though. Then in class the other day you expanded on the use of Meta. We talked about the metatheatricality of Macbeth’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow speech. Also my grandfather was an English major in college and a baseball fan, and because of this he reads a lot of books about baseball. One he was talking to me about was on metastrategic thought in baseball. This might sound confusing to someone who does not play baseball, but since the sport has such a large metal component to it this is commonplace among players and coaches. So, I figured why not write about something that caught my interest and involved a little english: the uses of Meta.

A simple google of Meta was where I started. First was the use of meta as a noun which is a shortening of meta-key. A meta-key is the key that is used alongside the control key on a keyboard to perform functions. An example of this is when you copy something on a computer you use the control and c-key. The c-key would be the meta or meta-key. The next definition which that came up was the adjective Meta which describes a creative work referring to itself or the conventions of its genre. This definition is used in place of the prefix meta- which will be talked about later. This adjective is used often as a predicate adjective. For example one could say “This book is so meta.” This would mean the book focuses on its own genre or itself. This could be a book written as though a detective novel and about a detective novel. This use of the word is used in more situations than just books and other literature. This definition is used for far more than just literature though. The next definition changed the word into the prefix meta-. This prefix actually has a wide spread of uses. The first use of the prefix signifies a change in position or condition. The best example of this is metamorphosis. A metamorphosis is the change in state of something. This shows the use of the prefix in this way very clearly. The next use of the prefix shows the position of beyond or after. This could easily be linked to the meaning of self-referring for the adjective. The work that is referring to itself is beyond itself to the point where it can then talk about itself. A little bit like breaking the fourth wall. The final definition of meta- denotes something of a higher order or the power above. This also is simply brought back to the self-referral use of the word. The physics above physics would be metaphysics. This would be the physics of a higher order or a more elevated level.

After simply googling Meta it is clear that the use of the word varys, yet can also all be brought back to the origin of the word’s definitions. When people say “that is so meta,” it is probably them talking about something above their mental comprehension, or they could be dropping the second half of metaphor to make meta. Both bastardizations could be brought back to the original word.

This simple googling of a word was most interesting than I had thought. I think that the analysis of the word was a fun thing to do. Maybe sometime in class we should google a word when we want to figure out the diction of the word in question. I hope Mr. Yee will at least take this suggestion into consideration, and notice how this little portion of the blog was a META analysis of the google search. One could say that meta is so meta.