Ti Literalisms

[Qlip]

I've been spending some time with a couple of INTPs, and I'm amused by what I can only assume are [amusing] Ti prompted conflicts with metaphor. I thought I'd start a thread hoping others would pitch in.

My friend, reading the lyrics to a Japanese song, laughed at "I will continue to run after my last breath" and responded, "So, she's a zombie?".

Same friend, same song: "I stand in the lonely rain", response: "How can rain be lonely?"

A young INTP, watching 'Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog' remarks, "Don't they notice that they're suddenly singing? Musicals are weird."

 

[Nocapszy]

INTJs are even worse - at least the INTP has Ne working on their side.
as INTJ only really ever understands their own metaphors, and Te is even more literal!

 

[Qlip]

INTJs are even worse - at least the INTP has Ne working on their side.
as INTJ only really ever understands their own metaphors, and Te is even more literal!

I'll have to keep my eye out for the Te variety. I noticed that INTJs will forcefully appropriate metaphors and do wrong things to them.

 

[Seymour]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

 

[Nocapszy]

I'll have to keep my eye out for the Te variety. I noticed that INTJs will forcefully appropriate metaphors and do wrong things to them.

yes.

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

yes.

 

[Qlip]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

Oh, no doubt. My friend understands, he just wishes he didn't. An the young INTP was confused, but managed to figure it out.

 

[onemoretime]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

I thought the zombie quip was fairly amusing, myself.

 

[Ginkgo]

I think if an INTJ forcefully misappropriates a metaphor, it's because they've picked up a general understanding of an outside source without regarding the finer structure of that general understanding and how it would be applied in a metaphor accordingly. An INTJ would be perceived as literal because he insists on a literal expression of dogma rather than a devotion to the finer points of his own systematic comprehension. It's as though an INTP would prefer knocking down a single domino to achieve the same effect an INTJ would cause by steamrolling the entire set. The relationships an INTP would draw through metaphor are dependent on a particular portion of one body of thought compared to another, resulting in what would appear to be a completely random relationship being drawn between two loosely similar things. On the other hand, and INTJ would pick up tons of information to appropriate a more comprehensive metaphor, even in the form of a novel being rigorously stitched together between a plot and a single theme. Idk, I think everyone is literal but those who are sometimes noted for their literal interpretations are simply overly dogmatic, and in being rigid, one may actually inhibit understanding of literacy by refusing to admit the presence of assumptions.

 

[Totenkindly]

... keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

Yes, it's often just a humorous footnote.

PS. Where did you hide my rewards?

I thought the zombie quip was fairly amusing, myself.

I smiled at the other two.

 

[Oaky]

INTPs don't have as much sense of 'the point' of a particular thing which is why they take things not to different perceptions to find the point, but to a framework that makes sense as a build up of logical thought.

 

[Such Irony]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating.

I've been guilty of this.

 

[James Woods]

INTP's are literally the funniest type.

 

[Orangey]

Sounds like the jokes of bad Te. That is, ISFP/INFP.

Or maybe an asperger's ISTJ.

 

[Tiltyred]

Don't get me started on Aspie ISTJ. Won't eat a sweet potato because it's unnatural. Potatoes are not sweet. Why would you do that to a potato. etc.

 

[Rasofy]

Hah!
I often do that with biblical passages, so I guess I'm a bit more inconvenient.

 

[Eugene Watson VIII]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

Yes haha

Sometimes when a metaphor makes 'sense', an INTP will come along and break it up with surgeonic precision, crapping all over the metaphor, explaining that your girlfriend can't fart rainbows...or whatever.

 

[Wolfie]

That kind of too-literalism can definitely happen, but keep in mind that Ti-types sometimes take things literally in order to be funny/irritating. Deliberately misinterpreting things (including level of abstraction) has its own rewards.

I do this all the time, but people usually react by trying to explain it, and then I have to snap, "I KNOW! I WAS JOKING!" And then I'm just irritated. To their credit, it's hard to tell when I'm joking.

 

[Evo]

that's where all my miscommunications with intp's come from...ha ha...it doesn't end well.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I've been spending some time with a couple of INTPs, and I'm amused by what I can only assume are [amusing] Ti prompted conflicts with metaphor. I thought I'd start a thread hoping others would pitch in.

My friend, reading the lyrics to a Japanese song, laughed at "I will continue to run after my last breath" and responded, "So, she's a zombie?".

Same friend, same song: "I stand in the lonely rain", response: "How can rain be lonely?"

A young INTP, watching 'Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog' remarks, "Don't they notice that they're suddenly singing? Musicals are weird."

HAHA The zombie one is hilarious.

This is the crux of the double edged sword that is Ti. It can be very amusing in these cases where the absurdity of a situation is thrown into the spotlight... and then it can be downright agonizing when it gets a bit too serious.

I'll have to keep my eye out for the Te variety. I noticed that INTJs will forcefully appropriate metaphors and do wrong things to them.

But... that's what makes INTJs so much fun....

 

[Orangey]

God, these all sound like really, really bad jokes. Are you people actually proud of this shit? I wouldn't want to admit to it even if I were guilty of doing it.

The only time literalizing a metaphor could be funny is if you turned it into a sexual joke. And even then it would have to be self-conscious or ironic, which can be grating if not done properly.

Please don't blame this on Ti.