Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

supraliminal13 t1_iyazeep wrote

Reply to comment by rustblooms in english teachers and symbolism by mzjolynecujoh

Yes, in most cases symbolism is reader interaction. There are nowhere near as many works written with deliberate symbolism. It's not really a common deliberate written tool.

The problem is that there's plenty of readers who are obsessed with symbolism. Great for the book club discussion or whatever, but then when someone starts to conjure up wild symbolism in everything it gets tiresome to hear. When a teacher forces you to do so, well... that's exactly why there's so many stories about "that damn teacher obsessed with symbolism".

Anyway it would be great if the people obsessed with symbolism also realized that in the overwhelming majority of writing all that "symbolism" is simply what the story meant to them. Not some hidden, clever meaning that they should devote boundless energy towards ensuring that everyone else clearly "sees correctly". Seems like it should take way less effort to realize how annoying that could get, lol.

5

rustblooms t1_iyb4iwq wrote

I agree. Some people DO take symbolism way too far and allow it to dominate the story to the extent that conversations miss the story itself and focus on what it could mean. It can get very heavy-handed and unwieldy very quickly.

I personally am the worst at reading with symbolism. I have a BA in lit so I can do it, but I mostly just care about the story! Now that I've finished my PhD (in rhetoric and composition), I've been reading thrillers and mysteries. I love reading like it's mindless TV sometimes. Book snobs would hate me lol.

4