There is an old jibe that I have not been able to trace to its source that says that in literature, a phallic symbol is anything that is longer than it is wide.
When I was a overeager student, I used to talk as an overeager student, think as an overeager student, reason as an overeager student; when I became a college dropout, I put aside overeager-student-ish things, including absolute ignorance about how the world actually works and disgusting pretension to knowing anything.
Excellent article, and not only because it reminds my former self that she wasn't crazy for not "getting it."
This—the nitpicking over texts finding meanings never intended by the author—is one of the main reasons I decided NOT to major in English in college . . .
. . . and instead majored in Biblical Studies, which was a hundred times worse, because every professor in the field was trying to extract their erudite papers and theses and dissertations and overanalyzes from ONE BOOK.
Love your take on symbols as reminding us of stories, not things—and how the proper use of symbols by an author is to use several different symbols in close proximity to "triangulate" the story they mean to invoke.
When I was a overeager student, I used to talk as an overeager student, think as an overeager student, reason as an overeager student; when I became a college dropout, I put aside overeager-student-ish things, including absolute ignorance about how the world actually works and disgusting pretension to knowing anything.
Excellent article, and not only because it reminds my former self that she wasn't crazy for not "getting it."
This—the nitpicking over texts finding meanings never intended by the author—is one of the main reasons I decided NOT to major in English in college . . .
. . . and instead majored in Biblical Studies, which was a hundred times worse, because every professor in the field was trying to extract their erudite papers and theses and dissertations and overanalyzes from ONE BOOK.
Love your take on symbols as reminding us of stories, not things—and how the proper use of symbols by an author is to use several different symbols in close proximity to "triangulate" the story they mean to invoke.