symbolism for writers

7/29/2019 Symbolism for Writers

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In fictionSYMBOLISM

Made in JANUARY 2006

forBUILD/BLANKAin LONDON [UK]
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The symbol is a concrete thing in the story,literal, see-able, an image: a bridge, a bottle of

whiskey, a pebble, a letter, fire. It movesthrough the story, quietly accruing meanings.And these meanings continue to adhere to thething throughout the story. For example:


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And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, Ithought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out Daisy'slight at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way tothis blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close hecould hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know wasthat it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast

obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of therepublic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future thatyear by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that'sno matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out ourarms farther.... And one fine morning---

For Gatsby the green light is his dream of afuture with Daisy.


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There was always a bottle present, so that it wouldseem to him that those fine fierce instants of heartand brain and courage and wiliness and speed wereconcentrated and distilled into that brown liquorwhich not women, not boys and children, but onlyhunters drank, drinking not of the blood they spilledbut some condensation of the wild immortal spirit,drinking it moderately, humbly even, not with thepagan's base and baseless hope of acquiring thereby

the virtues of cunning and speed but in salute tothem.

Wow. Theres a lot of symbolism in that bottle!


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recurs

is spotlighted through description

appears in prominent places title, opening,

ending, climax

is dynamic, hard to pin down/define/limit

may remain after the story has faded

suggests the theme. may reveal more than the writer intended


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intrudes

persists when cut

demands description

hovers around the ending is emotional / biographical / spiritual /

mysterious, hard to pin down

a force for interconnectness

a force for characterization (what they want,crave, lose repeatedly, seek, keep doing)

trust and follow symbols


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Personal Our life experiences affix meanings to things and actions Skis

Contextual The meanings that affix to a symbol through thecourse of the story. Story makes meaningan alchemy.

Cultural/conventional A shorthand readable by all withinthat culture A key = freedom, escape, but less so or not at all in a culture with mass

transportation. Black = death, funerals in some cultues, white in others.

Universal Things and actions that have thesame symbolic meaning around the world because weshare biology and . . . A world.

Morning = new beginnings Green = spring, rebirth Candle = a light in darkness Lions = power Chain = bondage Caution. What IS universal? Darkness = danger,or safety? Red = blood/death or joy/marriage?Snakes = evil, or is that limited to Eurocentric cultures?


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A fiction lives as long as its symbols areinterpretable and reinterpretable. Whyteachers have to hammer home meaning,

translatethe symbol has become unmooredfrom the culture orthe prose that sought todescribe it in such a way that the it forgesconnections to meaning is inaccesible to

readers or only accessible as an unresonantartifact. Which is why each generation ofwriters must make it new.


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Then Creole stepped forward to remind them thatwhat they were playing was the blues. He hitsomething in all of them, he hit something in me,myself, and the music tightened and deepened,

apprehension began to beat the air. Creole beganto tell us what the blues were all about. They werenot about anything very new. He and his boys upthere were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin,destruction, madness and death, in order to findnew ways to make us listen. For, while the tale ofhow we suffer, and how we are delighted, andhow we may triumph is never new, it must alwaysbe heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's theonly light we've got in all this darkness.


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Read the symbolism of your life. Things you lose often, need a lot of.

Actions you repeat.

Recurring night and day dreams. The songs and photos you love.

The things you associate with friends andfamily.

What would it be hard for you to give away?

If your best friend was leaving forever, whatwould you give him/her to take?


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1. Write about something you lose often orwould hate to lose. Maybe it means more toyou than what it is.

2. Record a sleeping dream and analyze possiblesymbols in it.

3. Choose an item that your main character

cannot live without. Then create aconversation in which a friend asks him/herWhy is that so important to you? Answer inyour characters voice. Feel free to ramble.


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Actions can be symbols too. Anyone who has seen awedding knows that. When Lyman lets his olderbrothers car roll into the river, its a powerful,complex, symbolic statement thats hard to put into

words, but we feel it. I cant live free and happywithout you. For me the car really stood for you. Itdoes with you. Or, perhaps more happily: I hopethere is a heaven where youll drive free in a cool

convertible.


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Part 3 from start to 4:33. Then 6:15 to ?

Then Part 7 from 2:00 to 5:00

symbolism for writers

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