On the Use of Imagery

From a Potebnya quotation in Victor Shklovsky's seminal essay on Formalism, "Art as Technique":

Since the purpose of imagery is to remind us, by approximation, of those meanings for which the image stands, and since, apart from this, imagery ins unnecessary for though, we must be more familiar with the image than with what it clarifies.

The statement above comes from a supposition that the purpose of art is to present the unknown in terms of the known. Shklovsky objects that actually the opposite happens frequently--for example, one writer's comparison of the sky to a garment of God, in which an image that is difficult to grasp is used to describe an object with which everybody is familiar.

This may seem like an obscure and irrelevant excerpt, but as writers I think it's useful and important to think about how and why we use images and the specific relationship we invoke between the image and the object to which it points. At the worst, images become a way to avoid mentioning something directly in order to sound high-brow or delicate, but with some work put into them, you can create structural and thematic interplay and all kinds of other fun things.

P.S. This part is not even the main brunt of a really groundbreaking essay. If it seems interesting to you, I'd love to discuss it or point you to where you can find it to read on your own.