That Might Not Mean What You Think It Means

Symbolism and meaning in art aren’t always there

I had a college professor who was very, very sure of himself. He was so incredibly sure of himself – and convinced he was absolutely correct – that he took a play by a well-known playwright and made cuts to it to fit HIS narrative about the focal character. Seriously, he took the best character in the play and cut 80% of the part because it didn’t fit his belief in a single focal character (and she had some of the best and funniest lines in the play, too).

One thing this professor pushed was that every name has meaning. He was adamant about this. Every character is given the name they’re given because it has a meaning/symbolism in it.

As a writer, I can tell you without a doubt that this is 100% Grade-A bullshit. Yes, I recognize that I’m not one of the greats or a writer of classic tropes. Yet I am absolutely, 100% certain that not every name even the most amazing and highly regarded author creates has meaning or symbolism to it.

This is true of lots of aspects of most arts. While there are many creations with incredible, hidden meaning and symbolism, often it is only in the eye of the beholder.

That might not mean what you think it means, my friend. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Your mileage may vary

The truth is that you can find and/or create meaning in anything at all. There is plenty of art out there that looks meaningless, that I can’t believe someone thinks is art, that another person sees as the end-all-be-all of that form of art.

A great example of this is Nirvana’s grunge megahit, Smells Like Teen Spirit. This song was written with no meaning intended whatsoever.

Yet, Tori Amos covered it, and many saw her cover as the deepest, most quintessential expression of Gen X angst of the 1990s. This is a song the artist who wrote it (the late, great Kurt Cobain) told us had no meaning to it. (Teen Spirit, you might or might not know, was a deodorant available in the 90s, and the story goes that when someone was up a ladder painting a ceiling, someone else remarked “It smells like Teen Spirit in here”.)

Another example. There’s a part of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King where Eowyn and Faramir meet in the Houses of Healing. If you read it from a certain perspective and apply Tokien’s penchant for symbolism and meaning, you can interpret this part of the book as a sex scene.

Interpretation of characters, names, scenes, songs, art, and the like are entirely subjective. Thus, your mileage may vary and you might see symbolism and meaning in something. You, however, might be the only one who sees it.

This only becomes problematic when people start to stand behind anything as the One True Way or the like. When you see your interpretation of ‘X’ as the only accurate one, and reject all other possibilities, you create conflict and competition where none exist.

This might amount to nothing. Or, it might turn into some major unpleasantness. Look at how once largely pleasant and welcoming fandoms have turned ugly. Star Wars “fans” forcing actors to abandon social media, Star Trek “purists” offended by openly gay and gender-neutral characters (Star Trek, which has always been “woke” as fuck), comic book fans rejecting reimagining for inclusion and representation create problems where none should exist.

The worst example of this isn’t in art. Meaning and symbolism in religious texts have been the basis for more wars and suffering than almost anything else. Yet people will fight and die for those beliefs and values.

More than one way

Recognizing that that might not mean what you think it means is important. Why? Because any meaning or symbolism you find in any art – be it a book, painting, song, sculpture, whatever – is entirely, 100% subjective. You might find meaning and symbolism that nobody else can see.

This is not a bad thing. Art in all its forms is meant to inspire. It opens the imagination and can be the impetus for growth and change. Accepting and embracing that that might not mean what you think it means opens you to a world of potential, possibilities, and more.

Discussion of meaning and symbolism can be educational and healthy. Yet recognizing that your mileage may vary, and your perceived phallus is another’s architectural wonder (I’m looking at you, Washington Monument) is good for your mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness and wellbeing.

It doesn’t matter, in the end, what anything means. How it impacts you is not on anyone but you. If that brings you joy, inspires you, or shows a path you prefer to avoid, art is imagination made manifest. Symbolism or no, meaning or no, examine, explore, and enjoy it for how it impacts you, and don’t worry about what anyone else sees or doesn’t see in it.

Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?

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