Comments on: Flannery O’Connor on the Purpose of Symbols in Fiction … Quote of the Day #14 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-7684 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:02:46 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-7684 Have you considered doing what a lot of art and literary critics do and keeping a dictionary of symbols handy? There are many good ones, such as J.E. Cirlot’s 400+ page A Dictionary of Symbols” (Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1993). And most large libraries and many smaller ones have at least one in the reference section. These dictionaries can help if, for example, you see that a certain novelist or poet uses a certain image over and over — or just once in a very prominent way — and you don’t understand why. If you look up the image, it may shed light on that work, sometimes enough that everything clicks into place.

In my experience, good dictionaries of symbols can help with those small S symbols, because there are so many — objects, shapes, colors and more — that even the best-educated critics can’t know them all. But maybe you’ve tried this or had something else in mind?

]]> By: Azalea http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-7680 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:35:03 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-7680 I graduated from one of the Seven Sisters colleges, in the days when that was the female Ivy League – yet I had no idea what a symbol was until, 3 years later in graduate school, I got up the courage to admit my ignorance and ask a graduate student of English. I still don’t recognize a symbol unless it comes with a capital S – or a critic points it out, so the entire discussion above conveys no information to my mind.

Can anyone suggest a way to correct this abysmal ignorance?

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-666 Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:02:32 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-666 Actually, it was exceptionally clever. But you see what happens when you read too much Mitch Albom? Or “The Power of Nice”? You start using wimpy words like “nice.” Any day now, I’m probably going to be telling people who leave comments here that they’re among the “Five People You Meet in Heaven” (as Mitch would say) …

]]> By: heehler http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-665 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:43:18 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-665 Nice line? Not exceptionally clever? …tough crowd.

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-663 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:55:00 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-663 Nice line. It can also be what lies between the lines of nonfiction and poetry.

]]> By: heehler http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-662 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:32:35 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/flannery-oconnor-on-the-purpose-of-symbols-in-fiction-quote-of-the-day-14/#comment-662 Literature is what lies between the lines of fiction.

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