Writer's Blog - Symbolism

'A symbol is anything that stands for anything else. Of course, all language is symbolic - the word 'dog' has never yet bitten anybody - however, the literary forms referred to as symbolism are: metaphor, simile and allegory.' (43) Writing a Novel.
The chapter goes on to list the purposes of symbolism.

1. To Demonstrate a Concept


2. To add a further dimension


3. To sneak behind the rational mind

These concepts are rather complicated. Basically the emphasis in this section is that writing is a form of lying. "love is not at all like a rose, nor the moon like a balloon) P44 Meaning that words are already an agreed symbol. If there was some undeniable truth to words then there wouldn't be many languages.

I think the most interesting thing discussed in this section is the importance of names. It talks of how the wrong name can carry too much weight and not work in the story.

I remember hearing that Captain Jonathan Archer in Enterprise was originally to be call Jackson Archer.This was shelved when it was realised that there was only one Jackson Archer in the US. So it was then decided to call him Jeffrey Archer!

I have occasionally searched for the names of my characters. As I write this I seem to remember talking about this before. Of course its impossible to cover all possibilities. I might give a character a name that rhythms with a famous American chat show host. So on the whole I think worrying about such things is a little silly. When we consider the international nature of publications every name will sound silly somewhere.