Shouts From Down Under

Dealing with confronting symbolism. What does that mean?

Confronting themes and symbols in this blehurrg ayuntreh. (Blog entry -American accent )

How complex is a cactus? How deviant should it be demonstrated, devised and described?

Can't it just be green and spiky, grow in a desert or pot-plant or someone's front yard, and be avoided unless filming a YouTube clip for JackAss style stunts? Language warning!



Does it have to be all intense, double edged, inconveniently, insanely intangible?
No. It's just a plain old protrusion of pain. Or not even that wordy. It's just

PAIN!

There can be lots of symbolism in our writing, our maze like plots, our twists of intrigue, our sleight of hand illusions, our sneaky red-herring scenes of distraction.
That has to be a good thing, surely. Nobody ever won a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize, for a methodical textbook describing the cooling of cutting tools while turning non-ferrous metals on an engineers' lathe.

Today, as at other times, while ordering some food from my fave (shhh our daughter now works at the opposition's establishment) coffee joint, I couldn't resist the temptation to apply the tomato sauce on my meat pie, in some sort of symbol or sign, representing an entire library of books, written on said subject.

I've done this quite a few times, rewarded with mirth from the staff, and often they do it themselves just for a joke. Bakery / Cafe's can be very warm and friendly places to hang out you have to agree?

Today, I couldn't think of any quick picture or logo or whatever to put there, so I squirted with tomato sauce the following:



Both the Barista who served me and her colleague didn't know what it was except they'd seen it before, so I had to prompt them, no, tell them what it was, and I noted to them that I put it there as a subject for writing. With this understanding (I don't think they really understood at all that a writer has to write) I then squished the sauce into a non picture so as not to offend someone who did not see the purpose, and might find me a little strange, to say the least.

So, there it is. A Nazi swastika symbol on a meat pie, next to a Lamington. If you don't know what a meat pie is, who the Nazi's were (During World War 2) or what a Lamington is (Yum) then it would be helpful to refer to Google.

Because I'm not about to explain for hours, or debate or even whisper about it. As for the Lamington and Pie, they are long gone, along with the swastika. No I don't feel ill from consuming the symbol, and the sauce was quite tasty.

This picture / photo set me to thinking how I could write about it in a blog entry, and immediately I thought of symbolism, and over complicating our plots, using too many words when one or two would suffice, and generally writing simply and clearly.

The rest of the photos are just for you as prompts. They do not represent anything in this blog entry. No symbols. No hidden meanings. No right or wrong answer. No fire lighters ready to start a fist fight. Just healthy simple pictures with odd, different subjects. Ok, they may be a little weird. That's what phone cameras are for, hey?

Invalid Photo #1035465 Invalid Photo #1035467

Cake, ground earthing screws, and an insane car passenger whose wife is studiously ignoring.

This last pic is an update on our bathroom renovation, and I don't have a current one, but all the shower tiling is now done waiting for the grouting process. We are putting in the shower stall (frameless glass) first so that we can then remove the old bathtub and the shower equipment over it. This way we don't have to go elsewhere (mother in law's) for a shower except only maybe one or two nights. Make sense?

Invalid Photo #1035469

Simple clear writing. We don't have to write like a dictionary, as our kids told me one day. And I've noticed even re reading through some of my novel again, that my dialogue is a bit stilted in places.
Forget the grammar and spelling police in our characters conversation.

Have them say it era, gender, upbringing, situation, audience, reason, plot specific.

Here's a very clear demonstration of the musical quality of our sentences, a quote of Gary Provost, that our 22 year old son sent me via text message.
I valued him (my son) thinking about me, when it comes to writing. Our kids have always seemed bored by my talk of writing etc and have never read anything of mine except very short pieces I've nagged and nagged at them to please look at.

So you can see why the value of ANY response along these lines. Here it is...

http://www.garyprovost.com/_i_100_ways_to_improve_your_writing__proven_professio...



Sparky

This video is to introduce Carly.