RainmakersWritingforfun

AO3 and my work there: mostly fallout fanfiction and my orignal book check it out if you have the time. (https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainmaker221)

Opinions you didn’t ask for: is it symbolic?

Welcome to “Opinions you didn’t ask for” the weekly not weekly series where I pick a topic at random about things I care about and break it down.

Symbolism is tricky in storytelling, not only that but when you’re forced to look for it, it can be exasperating to talk about. A catchphrase that got popular in my school years is “Sometimes the curtains are just blue.”

It’s a piece of rhetoric even I’m guilty of using, this idea that “It isn’t that deep,” or “maybe they thought it’d be cool.”

I’m not entirely convinced I’m wrong,  sometimes when an author or narrator is describing something it can be something shallow or set dressing, but sometimes it’s more than that and that’s what this is about; spotting symbolism in storytelling.

I’m going to use “The curtains were blue.” as an extended example here.

As a general I’d say it’s important to look for patterns, do curtains or the color blue show up in other spots in the story and in what context?

With the right finagling a decent author could make “curtains” a sign of normalcy or luxury, and the “Blue” a sign of tragedy or victory. As a general rule, if an author keeps drawing your attention to something it’s important for some reason. 

The color could be a connection to a childhood memory, the curtains a representation of a larger dream. But if blue curtains keep showing up in the story, what it is unlikely to mean, is nothing.

Symbolism is tricky, because if you think you see it but no one else does you can look nuts. As a general rule “Look guys I swear, this innocuous running gag is actually deeply tragic just hear me out” Is not how you want to say or hear.

“The Crooked Mark” starts with a murder.

The main character (Matt) introduces us to the core premise of the story that sometimes, when a person miraculously survives an accident that should have killed them, they are marked by the devil to be an unwitting source of bad luck in the world that will escalate until it's getting people killed.

Matt and his father are a part of an organization dedicated to hunting these people and setting them on fire. 

The opening chapters of the story show one of these hunts going “Well” in that Matt’s father becomes convinced a person is Marked, they set the person on fire, and get away scott free. These chapters also detail Matt’s internal doubt and disgust with his actions.

The rest of the book is Matt’s first hunt on his own, even his father has left the state to pursue a different target.

From here, things get complicated. Matt catches feelings for the girl he’s hunting, he develops a sense of normalcy he doesn’t want to abandon, and without his father to quell them he has to confront his ever present doubts.

The Crooked Mark was a fascinating book, to say the least. “Hunter of the supernatural falling for who they're hunting” is not a new concept by any definition, but the spin of “Does the thing I’m hunting even exist” adds a new level to it that I quite enjoyed. 

A not insignificant portion of the book is Matt trying to blend in with the highschool his target is attending, and something I quite enjoyed was the, oftentimes aggressively, normal conversations he was having with his peers and then cutting to Matt’s internal struggle with his mission. One moment he’s flirting with a girl and wondering if she likes him or he likes her and the next he’s struggling with the “reality” that he might have to set her on fire in order to survive.

In a lot of ways “The Crooked Mark” feels tailor-made for me, if I were in the woods and saw this book on the ground I’d assume a trap had been set. Magic, Mystery, and themes about self determination in the face of forces arrayed against you.

It’s not perfect though, I’ve managed to write a review of the book and not really mention any characters other than Matt and his Father. His target and friends at school are all interesting, don't get me wrong, but they’re normal and when the book introduces this grand mystery it’s hard to be too invested in the normalcy.

I’m willing to buy the romance between Matt and his target (Rae) but the two of them are normal, it's a highschool romance, it’s sweet but that’s all that it is. The appeal of the normalcy is a big part of Matt’s story and I found it to be lacking, but maybe I’m a cynic so we can move on from there.