Literary allusions

Nostro · Dec 21, 2011

How do you manage them?

I'm curious because I find I want to add allusions to add further context to some scenes but my characters are definite non readers and there is no way they would verbally reference the work that I would like to reference. And the structure of the scene would not lend itself to structurally alluding to the work (if that makes sense). For instance Is it okay for the narrator to make the reference or would that be too clunky?

For example in one chapter, my character (who is a wannabe political assassin) tries and fails to retrieve a rifle from a police station which is located in a national park in Ireland. I want to allude to a raid on a magazine fort in the same park by the IRA in 1939 which also failed. As neither of my characters have any interest in history they would be unaware of the IRA's raid. It would be nice to be able to make a connection between the failed revolutionaries in the past and his current failure as a revolutionary, but I can't seem to find a way to do so. Anyone have any ideas?

I'm writing in third person omniscient but intrusions on thoughts are mostly limited to the main character.

As a side question, do you consciously insert allusions or do you only discover some when a reader points them out to you? The structure of one of my scenes is scarily similar to a short story from Liam O'Flaherty, which I had never read until it was pointed out to me.

Chalula88 · Dec 22, 2011

Personally, I don't use allusions purposely and I've so far never discovered one after the fact.

If your characters wouldn't know about it, why do you want to allude to it? It seems like it serves no purpose in your story.

Chances are, no one is going to have any idea what you're referencing no matter how specific you are with your allusion. So, ultimately, either people are going to make the connection on their own (because they automatically connect it to what happened in 1939) or they're not going to make the connection at all (because they have no idea what you're alluding to).

That's my thought, anyway.

Nostro · Dec 22, 2011

I would be doing it to strengthen one of the themes of the story. It wouldn't necessarily be for the character's benefit but it would help to further define the character and his actions for the reader. Cheers for the reply.

jcmoto · Dec 22, 2011

What if you started the chapter(s) with a quote about the raid? From a history book, maybe? That way you're not forcing something into the story that the characters wouldn't know about.

backslashbaby · Dec 23, 2011

In omni, if your narrator would know it and notice it, you can always slip it in. I wouldn't do it just once or anything, unless it was at the very beginning.

Make your omni narrator do it a few times, and make sure it still blends well, so get the flow right. And you're good to go, I think.

kuwisdelu · Dec 23, 2011

Yeah, if it's omni, it doesn't matter if your characters would know it or not, as long as your omniscient narrator does.

Nostro · Jan 4, 2012

jcmoto said:
What if you started the chapter(s) with a quote about the raid? From a history book, maybe? That way you're not forcing something into the story that the characters wouldn't know about.

You know I had tried that, but it seemed a bit odd to have a quote sitting there when none of the other chapters had quotes.

Nostro · Jan 4, 2012

backslashbaby said:
In omni, if your narrator would know it and notice it, you can always slip it in. I wouldn't do it just once or anything, unless it was at the very beginning.

Make your omni narrator do it a few times, and make sure it still blends well, so get the flow right. And you're good to go, I think.

I think this is probably the best way to go about it, once I get it to blend in well it should be good to go.

kdnxdr · Jan 22, 2012

What if they "ran into" or "tripped over" something that would represent the history that you want to interject and your character(s) respond out of ignorance, like keeping some words or an item around them, incorporating the allusion as a haunting curiosity. I'm not saying I did it well but I had a character (young male) find and hold onto three small pieces of burnt wood which never became an integral part of the story except as an allusion to the theme of integrity which ran through the story.

I'm a totally beginning writer with absolutely no training so maybe what I just wrote is all garbage.

Nostro · Jan 22, 2012

kdnxdr said:
What if they "ran into" or "tripped over" something that would represent the history that you want to interject and your character(s) respond out of ignorance, like keeping some words or an item around them, incorporating the allusion as a haunting curiosity. I'm not saying I did it well but I had a character (young male) find and hold onto three small pieces of burnt wood which never became an integral part of the story except as an allusion to the theme of integrity which ran through the story.

I'm a totally beginning writer with absolutely no training so maybe what I just wrote is all garbage.

Thanks, that sounds like it could work well. I took the easy route and opened the scene with my omniscient narrator's distant (booming) voice linking the history to the present.

Mikael. · Apr 19, 2012

I'd not spell it out. As a reader I feel that small is key. There's no joy in "discovering" something only to have the author tell it to your face in the next line.

Miss Plum · Apr 20, 2012

I'm writing in third person omniscient but intrusions on thoughts are mostly limited to the main character.

I think that means you have to keep quiet about it. The only way you can step in and point out the similarity is if you have one of those omniscient narrators who has a distinct voice and personality and even, possibly, uses the pronoun "I." Happens in more experimental fiction from time to time.

HoneyBadger · Apr 22, 2012

Even outside of omni, allusion works because it's subtle. If you need to quote a history book to support your allusion, you're doing it wrong. Hell, if you even need to say the thing you're alluding to, you're doing it wrong.

So do your research. Figure out all the little details about the Thing You're Alluding To, and tweak them for your current situation. Sneak in little bits, knowing that only a select few readers will get what you're doing and that everything needs to gel for the majority of readers who won't say "Ohhh, this is like the XYZ thing," but very delicate, subtle touches will help Easter egg your plot.

Or not. Who can say?

gingerwoman · Apr 22, 2012

Nostro said:
How do you manage them?

For instance Is it okay for the narrator to make the reference or would that be too clunky?

Contemporary third person generally has no narrator any more. Close third person is the POV agents and editors are generally looking for. That or first person.

Orchestra · Apr 23, 2012

Wouldn't it be easiest just to have one of the characters know the historical context? It's not like people with little interest in history can't still know a thing or two about it. I think it's certainly plausible that a would-be assassin in Ireland would know of an IRA raid. Even a cursory Wikipedia search on the locale of their attack might lead them to that tidbit. Don't make writing harder for yourself than it already is.

gingerwoman said:
Contemporary third person generally has no narrator any more.

There is always a narrator, a voice constructed by the author who conveys the events to the reader. The narrator might not have many recognizable characteristics of their own but they are there as a necessary structural component of fiction. You maybe right, though, that people are less receptive of opinionated and colorful omniscient narrators than, say, in the 1870's. Mostly invisible narrators and close point-of-views seem more contemporary to me.

Literary allusions

Nostro

Chalula88

Nostro

jcmoto

New Fish; Only New to Board

backslashbaby

*

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Nostro

Nostro

kdnxdr

One of the most important people in the world

Nostro

Mikael.

Miss Plum

HoneyBadger

terribly loud, emotionally distant

gingerwoman

Orchestra

practical experience, GTFO

Literary allusions

New Fish; Only New to Board

~~~~*~~~~

Revolutionize the World

One of the most important people in the world

terribly loud, emotionally distant

practical experience, GTFO

*