ezlo
New Member
Posts: 36
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Post by ezlo on Jul 30, 2007 16:14:30 GMT -5
How much do you guys enjoy symbolism in fiction?
I think the farther the symbol goes, the more it means to me. For example in Spiderman 3--Spoilers ahead--
In the movie the black suit being representative of sin and how it feels good for awhile but has devastating consequences. When he begins feeling remorse for what he did, he goes and sits underneath the cross. The only way he can get it off is from the bell(AKA God's Word)
That probably wasn't Sam Raimi's intention, and I possibly think way too much into things. But that's the whole point about symbolism.
What about you guys? Any other experiences like that?
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Post by Christian Soldier on Jul 30, 2007 17:13:21 GMT -5
I love it, too. I also love it when a book or movie reflects events in the Bible. IE: Deborah Chester's Alien Chronicles closely resemble the book of Exodus.
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Post by The Blue Collared Philosopher on Jul 30, 2007 18:24:30 GMT -5
I personally absolutally love symbolism. I mean, every story i think of that i would want to write resembles something! I mean, there are stories that i can write without symbolism, but i think it is funner to resemble something. I guess it is because you can write a story that has something that you believe in it and not just say it bluntly.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 31, 2007 9:45:09 GMT -5
The trick is to use symbolism or allegory without it being heavyhanded and obvious. Like a blunt instrument.
It's very hard to be subtle with symbolism. Or you can be too subtle and no one gets it.
An example of someone who got it right is Sharon Hinck in her Restorer fantasies from NavPress. You enjoy the novel in its own right, but it's cool to find out that it's a retelling of the biblical story of Deborah.
Jeff
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Post by kirstymca on Sept 6, 2008 16:45:41 GMT -5
"Or you can be too subtle and no one gets it."
Not necessarily a problem - they may get it in their subconscious. But even if they don't, if you know it's there, and it satisfies you, then it's achieved something.
I'm actually an illustrator/designer, not a writer (so I'm really here under false pretences!) and I use colour symbolically all the time. Sometimes it will be purely personal symbolism, but other times it will be more relevant to others. But it doesn't matter if others notice. It gives my work more solidity I think - not just choosing colours at random.
Btw, how do you do that thing where quotes from other people's posts come up in wee small letters in a box?
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CastleLyons
Junior Member
Virtute et Fidelitate
Posts: 83
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Post by CastleLyons on Sept 6, 2008 17:32:53 GMT -5
What's especially cool is when someone reads your book and finds symbolism that you did not intend. In my writing, my hope and prayer is that every reader will find something to take to heart. Sometimes they find things that were not in my mind when I wrote it. Tolkien even said something to this effect, but I can't recall the exact words off the top of my head.
When God is at the controls behind your writing, you never know what may happen.
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CastleLyons
Junior Member
Virtute et Fidelitate
Posts: 83
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Post by CastleLyons on Sept 7, 2008 12:47:30 GMT -5
Symbolism has a dark side as well. For example, I love the Stargate SG-1 series (we own the whole lot), but I didn't like the direction it took in the last two seasons, with the Ori and their Priors and the preaching of Origin. I couldn't shake the feeling that they were taking a negative crack at Christianity. It was the old "science vs. religion" war all over again. P.S. I loved that bit in Spider-man 3 that ezlo mentioned: with the black suit and the church and the bell and the cross. Maybe it's a case of seeing something that the author didn't intend, but that can be a good thing. (It can also be a bad thing.) If you're interested in symbolism, you might be interested in the kind of symbolism that medieval artists put into certain works, such as the unicorn as a symbol of Christ. I have a couple entries on that in my blog: castlelyons7.blogspot.com/
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Post by newburydave on Nov 18, 2008 18:13:41 GMT -5
I'm glad to see I'm not off the edge of the map on this one (heh, heh).
I'm reveling in symbolism in my Novelizations. I've been mining Wikipedia for ancient folk tales and "myths" to work in as symbolic names and atifacts.
ie. My starships are generically called Roodships. (10 points to the first one who comes up with the many derivations and meanings of Rood)
Even the Abyssian forces ships are of this type. One of the classes of starships looks like a Celtic High Cross with two orthogonal cross members and three sun circles.
The pattern that I'm sort of borrowing my timeline and many of my plots from is the ultimate story of humanity, the Bible.
I've got several Dragonid races in my universe and all of the good ones are elemental spirits which embody Christian Gifts of the Spirit.
I know that sounds kind of over the top but the Lord is laying it on me and I don't think I'm laying it on too thick. The symbolism just seems to fit into the characters world and story.
One of the premises I'm working from is that All of the mythology, even the pagan stuff, is only a dim racial memory of the true events, locations and people of the Antideluvian universe. Right now I've started telling that "history".
My main human characters are from the Godly Seed through Enoch.
If any of you would like to check it out and see if I'm meeting my goals I'll issue a shameless invitation to read and critique some of my chapters over in Anomolous Readings. I'm going to start posting them under the main title of "Invasion" book 1 in The Enoch Chronicles series.
It is a hard Science Fiction Space war kind of story. I've drawn some of my inspiration for the genre from David Webber's Honorverse series but set the whole thing in a Creationist theistic universe where God (Ya-Elone in the story) is very much involved in the affairs of all Sentient beings in the Galaxy and Humans in particular ( and ultimately the Universe). The story is set around Ano Mundi 1200 or 2560 BCE.
So if that sounds interesting to you (there are some elements that sound a bit like fantasy and there is some romance thrown in for good measure) check it out.
Once again I solicit your attention and critiques.
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Post by kouter on Nov 18, 2008 19:53:25 GMT -5
Where do we check it out?
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Post by newburydave on Nov 20, 2008 18:25:04 GMT -5
Sorry I got distracted. I'll put up some sample chapters by this weekend.
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Post by kirstymca on May 1, 2009 15:19:43 GMT -5
I just saw an interesting programme on the BBC, discussing a new theory about the symbolism behind the Narnia series. He thinks they are based round the seven mediaeval 'planets'. Fascinating, and sounded fairly convincing. There's a book about it, and a website: www.planetnarnia.com/Actually it was an incredible programme, because it was chock-full of all these Christians talking about the ressurrection, with the assumption that it was true. On the BBC
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Post by veryblessedmom on May 1, 2009 16:19:07 GMT -5
My current ms is full of symbolism that I didn't create. This is my first time writing and the whole experience has been surreal. The story came to me effortlessly. Learning the craft of writing takes a lot more work.
God keeps teaching me and pointing things out in my ms that apply to my life. If that's the whole purpose for my ms, I'm thrilled.
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Post by tris on May 5, 2009 20:00:40 GMT -5
Btw, how do you do that thing where quotes from other people's posts come up in wee small letters in a box?
Kirsty, you click on your profile at the top of the page and go to modify profile. Click and find the box (way down at the bottom of the page) that says "signature". Type in your favorite saying and save. You, too, can have nifty wee small letters. Enjoy!
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on May 5, 2009 21:32:59 GMT -5
Kirsty, you click on your profile at the top of the page and go to modify profile. Click and find the box (way down at the bottom of the page) that says "signature". Type in your favorite saying and save. You, too, can have nifty wee small letters. Enjoy! I think she actually means this quote box like this. If that's the case, just click the Quote button in the upper right corner of the post you wish to quote. Otherwise, you have to manually use quote tags. For instance, that quote looks like this: [quote author="@tris" timestamp="1241571640" source="/post/8580/thread"]Kirsty, you click on your profile at the top of the page and go to modify profile. Click and find the box (way down at the bottom of the page) that says "signature". Type in your favorite saying and save. You, too, can have nifty wee small letters. Enjoy![/quote] You don't need all that info though, other than just the basic tags. The rest of the info in it just allows links to the original post. On could actually quote a post from another thread into this one, and that would just allow one to track back to the original thread.
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