Symbolism, Shimbolism, Embolism

So for the last little while, I've been posting here and there on the subject of Charlie Jade at the Space boards. Space is the Canadian broadcaster for Charlie Jade, and the first station in the world to show the show.

What was great was watching as the series slowly did build a dedicated fanbase. Since I've only ever really been a freelancer on shows, I always felt disconnected from the process a bit. But this was a show that I helped shape, and now I was putting my head in the lion's jaws by interacting directly with the people who were watching it.

It's been a draw, mostly. It's a funny thing, because a lot of the time people ask for clarification. And Charlie Jade is a show that needs some serious clarification every once in a while. But what I found myself struggling with as I trundled along: at what point does clarifying a line of dialogue or "letting people know how things work or how things came to be" step over into denying the purity of the viewing experience?

I used to find it mystifying that people like Spielberg didn't want to do commentaries. But now I get it. Or at least I'm starting to.

The best example of this as far as I'm concerned is how it relates to the world of symbolism.

There's this story that I love: once upon a time some journo-wag asked Hemingway about symbolism in his novels, and apparently old Papa, that magnificent bastard, just sighed and fixed a dagger-like stare and said, "well I suppose there must be symbols inmy books, because people keep finding them."

I remember all those crusty English classes in High School, where ossified teachers would drone on about the symbols in Hamlet, or T.S. Eliot or whatever, and I think maybe that's where symbolism acquired this nasty taste for me. It wasn't the symbolism itself, per se. I love decoding in my art, meanings or signifiers that make the experience richer for me. The problem is having some old coot stand up there and tell me that this means this, and that means that, and that's canon and now regurgitate it all in your essay books while I go to the staff room to have a smoke.

Simply put, the truly magic thing about symbolism for me is the fact that it's the place where the artist and the art meet the audience. Everyone is different, and art is supposed to be dynamic. Just as a joke or a line of dialogue or a scene resonates with one person and leaves another flat, so too is the very tricky world of decoding symbolism.

A show like Charlie Jade is rife with symbolism, to be sure. A lot of it is seeded in there by us writers. Some by the directors, some in post.

But the best symbols, for me, are the ones that the audience comes up with.

I love the fact that Charlie Jade, like the Prisoner, is one of those shows where, "could mean this, could mean that, could mean nothing."

That's why when I'm navigating those boards and someone gets a symbol that we threw in there, I might tip the hat and say, "you found it." And some people might come up with something that is entirely part of their thing, and not intended, and sometimes they ask, "was that intentional?"

And I say nothing. Because so what if it wasn't? Does that make it less valuable? The problem is that if you respond to the symbols you did put in, and are silent on the ones that you didn't, people are going to start thinking the ones you do respond to are the only valid symbols.

So maybe it's better not to talk about it at all.

In Lost in Translation, when Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett's ear, I've read all over the internet postings from people PROVING they know it was this, or that. When really, the truth is it doesn't matter. What did it say to YOU?

New writers, I find, are always very concerned that their EXACT meaning get across to the audience. They want every symbol, every nuance, to be what they intended. Not only is this foolish. (You're never going to get people to agree on what things meant,) but it loses the wonderful, beautiful possibility of the audience bringing meaning to something that goes far beyond whatever it was you intended.

So I think I have to shutup about the symbolism. Ah well.