It was 1963 , and 16 - year - sure-enough Bruce McAllister was sick of symbol - hunting in English socio-economic class . Rather than quarrel with his teacher , he go straight to the source : McAllister mailed a crude , four - interrogation survey to 150novelists , asking if they designedly embed symbolism in their employment . Seventy - five source responded . Here ’s what 12 of them had to say . ( The original responses werepublishedinThe Paris Review . )
In case you were wonder , McAllister finally became an English prof .
McAllister’s Letter
“ My definition of symbolism as used in this questionnaire is represented by this instance : InThe Scarlet Letterthere are four major characters . Some say that Hawthornemeantthose four to beNature , Religion , Scienceor other similar symbol in camouflage . They apply the actions of the four in the history to what is before long happen or will materialize to Nature , Religion , Science , etc . ”
Ayn Rand:“This is not a ‘ definition , ’ it is not true — and therefore , your questions do not make sense . ”
MacKinlay Kantor:“Nonsense , young gentleman’s gentleman , write your own research newspaper publisher . Do n’t expect others to do the work for you . ”
Question 1
“ Do you consciously , intentionally plan and localise symbolization in your writing ? … Ifyes , please posit your method acting for doing so . Do you feel you sub - consciously place symbolism in your written material ? "
Jack Kerouac:“No . "
Isaac Asimov:“Consciously ? Heavens , no ! Unconsciously ? How can one avoid it ? ”
Joseph Heller:“Yes , I do intentionally trust on symbolization in my penning , but not to the extent that many the great unwashed have stated … No , I do not subconsciously invest symbolism in my composition , although there are inevitably many occasions when issue take a meaning additional to the one originally destine . ”
Ray Bradbury:“No , I never consciously place symbolism in my piece of writing . That would be a ego - conscious exercise and self - consciousness is defeating to any creative deed . Better to permit the subconscious do the employment for you , and get out of the way . The best symbolism is always unsuspected and lifelike . "
John Updike:“Yes — I have no method acting ; there is no method acting in writing fiction ; you do n’t seem to infer . ”
Norman Mailer:“I’m not certain it ’s a skillful estimation for a working novelist to business himself too much with the expert facial expression of the issue . Generally , the best symbols in a novel are those you become cognizant of only after you finish the work . ”
Ralph Ellison:“Symbolism arises out of action … Once a author is conscious of the implicit symbolisation which arises in the course of a narrative , he may take advantage of them and fudge them consciously as a further resource of his artistic creation . Symbols which are impose upon fiction from the exterior tend to will the reader dissatisfy by making him cognisant that something extraneous is added . ”
Saul Bellow:“A ‘ symbol ’ grows in its own means , out of the facts . ”
Richard Hughes:“[Consciously ? ] No . [ Subconsciously ? ] in all likelihood yes . After all , to a less extent , the same is dependable of our daily conversation — in fact , of everything we mean and say and do . ”
Question 2
“ Do reader ever infer that there is symbolization in your authorship where you had not intended it to be ? If so , what is your opinion about this eccentric of inference ? ( Humorous ? annoying ? etc . ) ”
Ralph Ellison:“Yes , readers often infer that there is symbolism in my work , which I do not mean . My chemical reaction is sometimes bother . It is sometimes humourous . It is sometimes even pleasant , indicating that the lecturer ’s mind has collaborated in a originative direction with what I have written . ”
Saul Bellow:“They most certainly do . symbolisation - hunting is absurd . ”
Joseph Heller:“This bump often , and in every case there is good reasonableness for the illation ; in many casing , I have been able to learn something about my own book , for readers have seen much in the book that is there , although I was not aware of it being there . ”
John Updike:“Once in a while — usually they do not [ see the ] symbolisation that are there . ”
Jack Kerouac:“Both , depending how interfering I am . ”
Question 3
“ Do you feel that the outstanding writers of classic consciously , intentionally contrive and place symbolization in their writing ? … Do you feel that they put it there stand in - consciously ? ”
John Updike:“Some of them did ( Joyce , Dante ) more than others ( Homer ) but it is unimaginable to opine of any pregnant work of narrative art without a symbolic dimension of some variety . ”
Ray Bradbury:“This is a interrogative sentence you must research yourself . ”
Joseph Heller:“The more sophisticated the writer , I would guess , the littler the use of symbolisation in the hard-and-fast horse sense and the nifty the attempt to achieve the effects of symbolism in more subtle ways . “
Ralph Ellison:“Man is a symbolic representation - fashioning and -using animal . Language itself is a symbolic strain of communicating . The swell writer all used symbolization as a means of control the form of their fable . Some place it there subconsciously , let out it and then developed it . Others started out consciously aware and in some example shaped the fabrication to the symbols . ”
Jack Kerouac:“Come off of it — there are all kinds of ‘ classics’—Sterne used no symbolization , Joyce did . ”
Question 4
" Do you have anything to remark have-to doe with the subject under cogitation , or anything you trust to be pertinent to such a field of study ? "
Richard Hughes:“Have you view the extent to which subconscious symbolization - making is part of the summons ofreading , quite decided from its part inwriting ? ”
Jack Kerouac:“Symbolism is alright in ‘ fiction ’ but I tell true life story but about what happened to hoi polloi I lie with . ”
John Updike:“It would be good for you to do your own thinking on this sort of affair . ”
Iris Murdoch:“There is much more symbolism in average life story than some critic seem to make . ”
Ray Bradbury:“Not much to say except to warn you not to get too serious about all this , if you want to become a writer of fiction in the hereafter . If you mean to become a critic , that is a Whale of another color … playact around with symbolisation , even as a critic , can be a sort of kiddish living room game . A footling of it goes a long style . There are other things of greater value in any novel or story … humanity , fiber analytic thinking , Sojourner Truth on other levels … right symbolism should be as lifelike as breathing … and as unnoticeable . ”
