Symbolism: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities,

One student on the internet recently asked, 'How do you know those symbols are in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter? Did he write a book called Symbolism in My Works? Aren't you just making it up?' The online tutor's answer: 'Well, sort of.' We use symbols when we write – like the letter 'A', or a cup of tea – and we hope the reader 'gets it', but critics may spot symbols where we didn't put them. Or didn't know we put them, anyway.

Back at university, my writing partner (okay, Elektra) and I once penned a parody/homage to James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. We'd just been exposed to this crazy work, you see, and it made us laugh. Besides, it was Halloween weekend, we were at my parents' house, and we had a couple of hours to kill before the kids showed up. Our parody was based loosely on our university campus, which featured a 42-storey Gothic Revival building, and the courtship behaviour of Elektra's roommate, a young lady determined to earn an MRS degree, as we said back then. She was the only person I have ever known to actually own a set of eyelash curlers – an instrument that looks suspiciously as if it belonged in Dr Weirdo's Chamber of Horrors.

We were absurdly proud of our parody, and showed it to our instructor, a hippie-type woman who was a great inspiration to us all. Lily insisted that we distribute copies and perform this parody to both English lit classes, which we did. They enjoyed it, and got the jokes. Further, they insisted on subjecting the 'work' to literary analysis. Following the precedent set in almost every one of Lily's sessions, the students announced, 'We will now discuss the sexual symbolism.'

'Wait,' I protested. 'We didn't put in any sexual symbolism.' (We were afraid my mother would read it.)

'That's what you think,' replied my fellow student. 'Let's start with the Cathedral of Learning. Biggest phallic symbol in Pittsburgh…' Things went downhill from there. Rolling on the floor is not just a smiley.

You get my point. You write what you write. People read what they read. You hope to achieve some overlap there. How? By making sure your message is focussed and clear,. Try to be less ambiguous, and don't take so much for granted.

Example: on this site, we're from all over the planet. Did you ever read a story by another h2g2er, get totally confused, and then realise that the other writer is from a different part of the world? One with different assumptions? That happens. Take tea-drinking. For the British, that's normal. In the US, drinking tea is more of a specialty interest. They used to drink a lot of tea in Pittsburgh, but that was unusual. Mostly, tea is preferred by women and more philosophically-inclined men. It's not mainstream. In one episode of the series Quantum Leap, holographic Al suggested that Dr Sam's leap target, a Navy cadet, might be gay – based on his preference for tea.

One way to use your symbols wisely is to underscore them in your narrative. Point to them subtly, and return to them occasionally. Try to make it easier for the audience to pick up on them. Of course, you don't want to be what the TV Tropes people call anvilicious.

Robin: Holy molars! Am I ever glad I take good care of my teeth!

Batman: True. You owe your life to dental hygiene.

Batman and Robin, after Robin has been hauled to safety by biting on a bat-shaped grappling thingy.

There's no need to drop an anvil on your head. You know what I'm driving at. We should have paid more attention to our 'sexual symbolism' back in 1970. We could have considered the audience, and played with the concept a little. You live and learn. You don't want to be too heavy-handed about it. But symbols will crop up in your writing, so you should be aware of the messages you're putting out there. You wouldn't want to be misunderstood.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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