Those are great examples. I think the beginning of PG's essay has two issues that provoked most of the negative comments. He was playing around a metaphor instead of a clear situational simile, and then he left out the details of how these programmers looked like caged animals to him. The latter prompted follow-ups like this: https://hackertimes.com/item?id=142050
So instead of readers seeing this:
"MegaCorp programmers looked purposeless and embarrassed,
like caged lions, while they were doing the scavenger hunt"
they saw this:
"MegaCorp programmers who I saw at a scavenger hunt are
caged lions with something missing in their lives."
The first sentence wouldn't draw much outrage. The second implies those programmers act liked whipped puppies around their girlfriends, look confused at the gym (if they even go to the gym), etc. [The negatives will vary depending on how you view caged vs free lions.] The programmers don't just act like caged lions in a situation, those programmers ARE caged animals.
To be fair, the actual line in the essay is this:
"And seeing those guys on their scavenger hunt was like seeing lions in a zoo after spending several years watching them in the wild."
It's just preceded by lots of prose that reinforce the IS relationship.
Your post is one of only two uses on the web of the phrase "situational simile." However, it actually seems like a useful term. Did you make it up, or are you just one of the few cool kids to use it on the interwebs?
So instead of readers seeing this:
they saw this: The first sentence wouldn't draw much outrage. The second implies those programmers act liked whipped puppies around their girlfriends, look confused at the gym (if they even go to the gym), etc. [The negatives will vary depending on how you view caged vs free lions.] The programmers don't just act like caged lions in a situation, those programmers ARE caged animals.To be fair, the actual line in the essay is this: "And seeing those guys on their scavenger hunt was like seeing lions in a zoo after spending several years watching them in the wild." It's just preceded by lots of prose that reinforce the IS relationship.