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/lit/ - Literature

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4112825 No.4112825[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Are there any certain symbols or similar things that you find yourself compelled to write about or use somehow in your writing?

Maybe some motif, some animal, /something/ that you at least find yourself thinking about like a writer?

>> No.4112831

I always find myself alluding to fire.

Also death, always death.

>> No.4112829

>>4112825
Not so much a symbol but I gather greek mythology is pretty fertile in symbolic value. specially the whole Cronos-Zeus-Dionysius thing

>> No.4112842

birds because when i was about 13 a friend and i killed a bird and the experience never left me. i say we killed a bird but something that has influenced the particular direction of the weight i bare because of this experience is the fact that my friend shot a bird with a slingshot and i was standing next to him.

i protested the whole going out and shooting a bird thing but i will say, not nearly as heavily as i could or /should/ have. i had a massive lapse in my judgement and stood there quietly while he took aim. i think about birds a lot as a symbol for human weakness or even just like, human nature as an imperfect thing because of the the things tied to this particular experience with the bird

also fire like the second poster except a sort of "holy fire". i can't really explain this on any level. the idea of a cleansing burn has always just been a neat thing to me

>> No.4112845

Borges was a big fan of mirrors, both for the aapect of multiplication and their aspect of deceit

>> No.4112860

>>4112825
I can't quite pin down what is it about dogs kept on roofs but there's something important in them that could have symbolic value.
You know, the kind that spent all day under the unforgiving sun stepping on the heathen surface of the roof restless and barking at every street passerby. Aware of their environment and unable to transit it (maybe desiring to do so or maybe not at all). I feel all the characteristics are quite clear but I can't boil it down to something briefer. How would you define something that has all those characteristics, in one or two wors?

>> No.4112881
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4112881

Symbolism is a very important literary technique. Some might claim that use of symbolism in modern writing is anachronistic and pretentious, but I disagree.

For example, dragon dildos hold a great deal of significance for me. There is so much that is expressed by a big thick dragon cock that words just cannot say.

>> No.4112882

>>4112881
This.

>> No.4112884

I usually feel like symbols are either hamfisted or could just as well be described as another device

>> No.4112886

>>4112825
Words are symols.
Your mind = Blow.

>> No.4112888

>>4112884
I don't know. there are works that precisely work around a symbol and are nothing without it

>> No.4112889

>>4112881
>anachronistic
>has clearly never seen postmodern authors using symbols

>> No.4112896

>>4112888

Absolutely. After all, my magnum opus "Ode to a Grecian Dragon Dildo" depends entirely on symbolism for its meaning and aesthetic appeal.

>> No.4112897

>>4112896
Your work sounds ridiculous indeed. There are serious works that do it and do it well

>> No.4112900

>>4112897

You simply don't appreciate my ground-breaking use of the dragon dildo as a symbol for the wistful melancholy of the post-post-postmodern era that we live in. I am the voice of my generation.

>> No.4112901

>>4112886
My dick in your moms mouth is a symbol of my hatred for you and your pretensions.

>> No.4112903

>>4112901
that sounds like a pretty small and short-lasting hatred

>> No.4112905

>>4112900
k

>> No.4112909
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4112909

>>4112903
Damn. You win man.

>> No.4114865

>>4112900
No one's laughing. It's just you, alone, hunched over the computer.

>> No.4114869

>>4112825
>driver's seat on right
Rule Brittania

>> No.4115323

The foggy-and-green of a forest. Gray sky, mist, running water, and muted, dark green. I frequently allude to it. I can't help myself.

Also, underwater plants. I've been trying for years to adequately write about the sight, feel, and emotional attributes a plant in warm water incokes in me.

>> No.4115327

I always end up writing about insects and little girls. I have no real interest in either thing.

>> No.4115346

rain

>> No.4115350

Indirect contrast and allusion


unreforming cycle

>> No.4115351

>>4114869
>brittania

>m8 implying

>> No.4115569

This might seem odd, but for me it's "the last day of summer". Not on calendar, but it seems to be that time when the rain comes and the heat never returns. Just the day after it rains, the sky is still kind of cloudy and there's the breeze of autumn coming. I've felt that once a year for as long as I can remember. Usually late August or early September.

>> No.4115592

The sun, as unbearable truth. Truth as corrosive and holy. Painful and nurturing.
Dogs. Likeable, but ferocious. Zen humans. Ridiculousness and wonder.
Tracks (railway tracks). Endlessness. The organic. Chaos. Light. Plans. Power as chaotic. Abandoned but ready to be used again, like discourses from recent history. Secrecy/alternate knowings.

>> No.4116111

>>4112900
>>4114865
I'm laughing!

>> No.4116116

>>4115569
I felt that two days ago.

>> No.4116125
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4116125

>>4116116

>> No.4116130

>>4116125
*shoves away*

>> No.4116136

>>4112825
the colour blue
stray cats
the figure of Icarus.

>> No.4116151
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4116151

>>4116130

>> No.4116154

I have an urge to write about a boy in High School only not in typical YA style. And I think if there were a lot if cats in his house that would be nice, and one dying turtle

>> No.4116176

>>4112860
I read an article about two dogs that had been left on a roof in the city all day and they had died and fused with the asphault.

>> No.4116180

Dirt.
It's really symbolically versatile when you think about it.
You can use it to signify life, death, fertility beginnings, endings, chaos,
and of course, cleanliness

If you're skillful, you can tie it to so many things.

>> No.4116368

>>4115327
;)

>> No.4116409
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4116409

Faith.

>> No.4116450

>>4116409
See this sword? the prince of darkness Sold it to me.

With Satan I have struck my deal, He chalks the signs, beats time for me I play the death march fast and free.

Karl Marx

>> No.4116470

I allude to glass and windows a lot in my stories.

>> No.4116480

>>4112881
Symbolism is not a literary technique. It is a literary quality.

>> No.4116491
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4116491

>>4112886
>>4112901
>>4112903
>>4112909
lel

>> No.4116530

>>4116480
Are you trying to argue "death of the author?"
That symbolism is something extracted from a work upon reading and not something put into a work by the author?
Or are you arguing that Symbolism is a core component of the story and techniques are what are used to augment it?
Or are you arguing something else?