01-07-2013, 01:50 PM
Serge, I expect neither my prose nor poems to impress anyone 
One of the exercises I do with my students is to have them choose symbols that represent themselves - they are required to go beyond the very obvious (eg. a baseball bat if they like baseball is rubbish) and it does take a large amount of introspection. It isn't an easy exercise but it results in a better understanding of themselves and also a greater ability to interpret an appreciate symbolism in all texts.
I think creators of any kind of text need to be aware that the reader will find some kind of symbolic meaning, whether it's what we intend or not. There are few things less interesting to me as a reader than to find a lack of individuality or imagination on a figurative level.
One of the exercises I do with my students is to have them choose symbols that represent themselves - they are required to go beyond the very obvious (eg. a baseball bat if they like baseball is rubbish) and it does take a large amount of introspection. It isn't an easy exercise but it results in a better understanding of themselves and also a greater ability to interpret an appreciate symbolism in all texts.
I think creators of any kind of text need to be aware that the reader will find some kind of symbolic meaning, whether it's what we intend or not. There are few things less interesting to me as a reader than to find a lack of individuality or imagination on a figurative level.
It could be worse