I don't know how many of you struggle with the idea of symbolism in your work. It's been something that gets to me every once in a while. I feel like when I write, I lack the thought and care it takes to put important things like symbolism in my stories. Sometimes I sit there and wonder if I should go back and rewrite something because it's just too shallow, especially since I am not a huge reader (not yet anyway, but working on it), so most of the things I have read have been for school and therefore are always followed by classroom discussion about symbols and themes and motifs and other scholastic things. This is mainly what intimidates me; I know I write things with an intended theme, and I can include motifs if I like, but those are much easier to think about. Symbols, at least the way they have been taught to me, just seem so much harder to consciously include and work with.
If this is something that sounds familiar to you, you might like this cool little article thing that I found. It is A short survey from a young man to a bunch of famous authors about symbolism in their writing. Their answers were really rather entertaining and helpful. I personally found Bradbury's responses to be particularly reassuring.
I hope this helps others the way it helped me. If it's not something you feel you need help with, it's still a pretty neat read, and short, too. Enjoy!
Oh, how I love Ray!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great article! I have struggled with symbolism, mainly in the sense that people say "this is what it all means" and there is no differing from it. I struggled with that in English. I think, like with art, each person can find there own meaning in the "symbolism." What they see makes it real for them. But I am terrible at using it myself.
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