Copyright 2010 by Gary L. Pullman
In
her addictive 1988 book The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and
Sacred Objects, Barbara G.
Walker offers many insights and much information of an inspiring
nature. Writers can mine her work for ideas for many stories, whether
of the horror genre or another. All it takes is an application of
one's own imagination.
Here
are some of her inspiring gems.
Any
. . . symbol may have hundreds of interpretations, according to the
differing beliefs of people who have interpreted it (ix).
How
might a mortuary be interpreted by various groups with—shall we say
unusual beliefs? For
zombies, a mortuary might be seen as an eatery; vampires might
convert it into a comfortable bedroom suite; a necrophiliac might
also see a mortuary as a bedroom but would be apt to put it to a
different use than vampires awaiting the deepening of twilight into
night.
People
revere external objects that strike their fancy for either esthetic
[sic] or associative reasons. Whatever is perceived as somehow
special in one's experience can become an object of worship . . .
trees . . . stones . . . mountains . . . rivers . . . as well as
every kind of personal or collective fetish (x).
Since
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, aesthetic vision may differ
from one person to another. What makes a place beautiful? The
blood-splatter pattern on the wall before which a gunshot victim
died? The human flesh that was burned into the stone of a dungeon
wall when a prisoner was burned alive? The full-length mirror in
which a man or woman was compelled to watch as he or she was flayed
alive? What other “associations” might render this place or that
sacred? Did Vlad the Impaler find the sharpened treetops stripped of
branches upon which he fixed his enemies holy objects? Was the
bathtub in which Catherine of Bathory bathed in murdered maidens'
blood a revered spot in her castle? Was the burial ground beneath
John Wayne Gacy's suburban home as special to him as a churchyard
full of dead congregants' bones is to their surviving loved ones?
The
simpler the symbol, the more meanings it can accumulate . . . through
generations (x). Walker recounts how the swastika, once a symbol of
“peace and creativity,” became seen, following its association
with the Nazis, a hated thing symbolic of “totalitarianism and
cruelty” (ix).
For
a naive, loving, young bride pure of heart, her wedding ring might
represent love and faithfulness and the sacred union of man and wife
in wedded bliss. A few years later, if the groom is not whom she
believed, but is unfaithful, cruel, and abusive, the same ring may
come to represent hatred and betrayal and her bondage to a man she
never knew. To her children, after they have learned of their dear,
dead mother's years of torment at her husband's hands, the ring may
signify the ordeal of horror, misery, and despair she suffered for
their sake.
Ultimately,
symbolism boils down to human needs and desires [related to such
universal concerns as] health, wealth, fertility, power, control of
the environment, or maintenance of the food supply (xi).
Again,
Walker gives horror story writers much food for thought in her
catalog of “human needs and desires,” especially if they were to
be warped by corruption, evil, or decadence. Were an evil man to need
a liver donor, to what ends might he be willing to go to obtain a
reluctant benefactor? For someone who puts profit before people, what
limits, if any, would there be? For a mountebank, an infertile man or
woman might present a windfall of opportunity. To gain or hold onto
power, men and women have done hideous deeds, indeed. An effort to
control the environment could easily backfire, causing deaths by the
thousands. What would an otherwise kind and compassionate character
do to ensure that he or she and his or her family does not go without
food?
Symbols
are whatever one cares to make of them (xi).
Problems
could arise if one group is willing to eradicate a group whose people
stand in the way of what possible followers' devotion to a symbol the
first group defines far differently than their intended victims do.
Walker's
concepts and perceptions could seed plenty of more story ideas.
Perhaps we will revisit her fascinating book's observations again in
a future post.