Reference: symbols as characters

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VRlass

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Hey,
In my head I have story. The most impactful, and the most powerful I have ever written. But allso the most complicated.
It Is complicated to a point I am not sure I can handle it, so I have a question. Does anyone could help with finding a story, or novel where symbols were characters?
I am looking for some way that worked in a past, so that i know what is too hard for the reader and what is ok.
Anyone?
 
VRlass said:
Hey,
In my head I have story. The most impactful, and the most powerful I have ever written. But allso the most complicated.
It Is complicated to a point I am not sure I can handle it, so I have a question. Does anyone could help with finding a story, or novel where symbols were characters?
I am looking for some way that worked in a past, so that i know what is too hard for the reader and what is ok.
Anyone?
Click to expand...
I'm struggling to understand what symbol as a character stands for, but I have a couple of things in mind. Maybe a character that the protagonist (nor the audience/reader) gets to see, but remains a looming threat, like the villains in Se7en and Zodiac? Or maybe an eldritch entity like Cthulhu, which the very idea of its existence drives people mad?
If I got it right, you already have a lot of material to go through.
 
The action takes place in symbolical plane, and characters represent aspect of existence.
But the focus isn’t on making them human - this is easy. The problem I have is with making the setting non disturbingly surreal.
Closest that I have in mind is Gaiman’s Sandman, But I need to go way more surreal, and I am just worried if it’s OK.
 
Write a few thousand words, find some people willing to read it, and see.

Don't ask them if it's OK ... That' s too vague. (Also too weak. You want readers to feel something stronger than that!) Ask if what you have written has engaged them. If you've made them care what happens next. If not, then why not?
 
In high school, my friends and I made a movie about a murderous semicolon. That is all.

But seriously, I'm with Teresa. I couldn't find anything searching Google. This could be a very unique concept, so I'd just go with it. Why not be a trailblazer?
 
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It does sound like the sort of thing that others will have tried before. The fact that we can't come up with examples likely means that none of those attempts suceeded, and the stories swiftly slipped into obscurity, or the writers decided the idea was more work than it was worth and gave up before they had completed the story.

But if the idea excites you and inspires you, perhaps you'll be the one who makes it work. You already know that it won't be easy, but the only way to find out if it is possible is to make the attempt. Sometimes the only way to discover what you are capable of doing is a great deal of trial and error.
 
If the story excites, it is likely that others may find it interesting. Go ahead and give a try at writing it.

Although I can't think of anything with symbols as actual characters, I seem to recall multiple times where there were runes or mystical books that exerted control over people. It seems like a small leap to give the runes or books a point of view.
 
VRlass said:
The action takes place in symbolical plane, and characters represent aspect of existence.
But the focus isn’t on making them human - this is easy. The problem I have is with making the setting non disturbingly surreal.
Closest that I have in mind is Gaiman’s Sandman, But I need to go way more surreal, and I am just worried if it’s OK.
Click to expand...
Not sure if I have the right idea, but Pixar's Inside Out takes place inside a little girl's head and her emotions are the characters.
 
What sort of symbols are we talking about?
And does the symbol imply the character's character?
I mean if we're talking chemical symbols, the TV program Sapphire and Steel springs to mind, even though neither had a chemical symbol, and the characters symbol didn't carry over into their character. (Steel was not strong, though perhaps a bit rigid.)
If we're talking mathematical symbols, you would have - being rather negative, and + positive. * (or x) could exaggerate or have lots of offspring etc.

Or maybe the symbols are fairly meaningless, and are just a naming system?
 
I'm not sure this is quite what you are after, but the eye of Sauron was basically just a symbol in Lord of the rings and could be argued to be a character. It represented Sauron but I think that's the idea here too?
 
I would suggest that most myths deal with symbolic characters.

Another subject that we are cautioned to stay away from: contain a number of symbolisms within the characters.

Didn't DC comics have a whole group of characters based on the periodic table of elements?

In fact many comic heroes are based on some type of symbol.

Is that what the OP means?

Or do you mean symbols as characters of font in your writing.
www.businessinsider.com

How to add special characters like emojis and accent marks using your computer's keyboard

You can add special characters on a PC or Mac computer by using keyboard shortcuts or accessing a pop-up window.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
 
Skinny Legs and All --(wiki)-A host of inanimate objects (Can o' Beans, Dirty Sock, Spoon, Painted Stick and Conch Shell) also play a key role in the novel,
 
Can you say a few words about what specific sort of symbols you had in mind? Depending on the level of abstraction I might be able to think of something. The tricky thing is, anything (and anyone) can be a symbol in a given context.
 
I usually see those as concepts that are symbolized, rather than symbols themselves. Would they be personified like, eg, history as the muse Clio?
 
VRlass said:
Myths are great starting point.
Why did I forget about it :D
Thanx :)

Dream, reality, chaos, hope, world, humanity, history, wisdom, time…
that stuff
Click to expand...
Sounds a little bit like establishing gods, the god of dreams, the god of reality, etc. You don't necessarily need to call them gods, but that seems to be the vibe I'm getting from the description. I'd go ahead with the story. It sounds unique and interesting.
 
farntfar said:
What sort of symbols are we talking about?
And does the symbol imply the character's character?
I mean if we're talking chemical symbols, the TV program Sapphire and Steel springs to mind, even though neither had a chemical symbol, and the characters symbol didn't carry over into their character. (Steel was not strong, though perhaps a bit rigid.)
If we're talking mathematical symbols, you would have - being rather negative, and + positive. * (or x) could exaggerate or have lots of offspring etc.

Or maybe the symbols are fairly meaningless, and are just a naming system?
Click to expand...
You just blew my mind with the mathematical symbols as characters
 
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