Straightforwardness: A Very un-Canadian Trait

Is it possible to write without metaphors, similies, synecdoches, and other forms of figurative language? Can we, the writers, put our vision into the hands of the reader and allow them to create their own? Is it possible? Would we allow it?

I once read somewhere that the one thing a budding travel writer must not do is to use cliched sayings of the figurative kind. So much of my writing consists of purple prose that I wonder if any relevant content would survive if I did cut back. Figurative speech is used so freely in our everyday lives that no one stops to really think about it anymore. How is one to describe how blue the ocean is without comparing it to something else? Or the monstrosity of an object with out referencing something equally as grandiose?

Take for example the relation between old memories and our current likes and dislikes. Theory goes that our preferences are not dictated by our sensitivity to "good" quality, but the sort of memory the object in question will trigger. In my personal experience, there are certain scents that take me back to an exact moment in my life. The smell of popcorn mixed with this sweet, powdery perfume always reminds me of one of my cousin's family movie nights which I was invited to. The movie was The Fellowship of the Ring and the theatre was packed. To me that scent is like an enfolding embrace, the kind that gives you those warm fuzzy feelings inside. Or there are certain songs of which the lyrics would have you parting your hair over your eye and slashing your wrists, but instead they make you sigh with fond old memories. Like this one song, Tu Carcel, loosely translated the lyrics say "I hope you suffer, bitch", but everytime it plays I smile over the faces I recall when I hear it.

What am I trying to getting at here? As convoluted as my example is, my point is this. Even in the deepest recesses of our mind we cannot think on one subject without unconsciously relating or comparing it to another. One image always evokes another. It's how we understand the world around us. And as a writer (possibly quite a bad a one) that is the way I document how I see the world: through comparisons and hyperboles and allegories.

P.S. I don't know how much of this makes sense... It was written in many different fragments that never quite fit together which I tried to fuse with a whole lotta bullshit. Possibly needs a lot of editing.