Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wednesday - More on Plot Collage and Allegory

Coming to the winddown on Plot. Today Is about Allegory and Collage pieces of fiction. We all know Aesop's fables and these are a simple form of allegory. In this story there's a meaning beyond what is shown in the words of the story. Tortise and hare race. The plodder wins. Fables can be simple or complex where the inner meaning is gradually revealed. With the allergorical form of a story there are two dangers. One is the message can take over and the writer begins to preach. Readers don't like preaching because it is less than entertaining. The other danger is trying to connect symbols that really don't connect. But a looser form of allergory is often successful.

Collage in this kind of story the parts do not connect. It's more like a newsreel sort of bits and pieces that may or may not make a whole. Often the pairings are now connected. The hard thing with this form of fiction is managing to hold the fragments together. While not seeming to be related the fragments are but for many readers hard to find.

1 comment:

Janice Seagraves said...

Excellent post. I didn't really understand those concepts until you explained them.

Janice~