Today’s post on gaming’s cultural influence
The soldiers call it the ‘Pacman challenge’ — dodging the scores of booby traps, trip wires and charges laid by the Taliban in the fertile soil of Afghanistan’s Sangin valley. The reference, to an arcade compujter game, is one of the ways the soldiers make light of the deadly gauntlet they run every day in the district.
— Daily Telegraph, July 11, 2009
Spotted in Time Magazine… one could quibble over whether it is the most appropriate retro game reference, but whatever.
Never quibble with anybody who dodges booby traps for a living.
You said booby… huh huh. Sorry had to. Couldn’t resist.
Very tempted to quibble…resisting…
It is nonetheless interesting that a dangerous challenge is immediately compared to a video game (while “gauntlet” is being taken as a literal description and is barely recognized as a metaphor).
I don’t like to link to Wikipedia, but refer to this article.
Specifically: “The word gauntlet, unrelated to the French-derived word gauntlet meaning a protective glove, was probably transferred from the Swedish gatlopp (‘street run’) to British troops in the Thirty Years’ War.”
@Morgan Ramsay
Yes, exactly…it’s still a metaphor (since they’re not actually undergoing a codified ritual), but the phrase is used so commonly that we likely don’t stop to recognize the fact that it’s a metaphor each time we do – evidenced here by the fact that it’s used to explain another metaphor.
Not sure if you were disagreeing with my description of “gauntlet” as a metaphor, but thought I’d clarify.
I don’t know Swedish. Hard to say whether “gatlopp” is a Swedish metaphor.