Changing the meaning of well-established symbols

Reinterpretations of symbols are a common occurence:

1. The letter x given the meaning "hazard":

   

2. The hazard symbol given the meaning "intoxication" or "death":

   

3. The christian cross given the meaning "Switzerland":

   

4. The Swiss cross given the meaning "medical help":

   

5. The copyright symbol given the meaning "funny tv station":

   

6. A form of the christian cross given the meaning "white supremacy":

   

7. The dollar symbol given the meaning "variable":

   $foo = "bar";

8. The German penny symbol (the letter d, for "denarius", in Kurrent script) given the meaning "delete":

   

and so on ...

Often the new meaning is related to the old one, as in most of these visual examples, but that is not always the case: tv station Comedy Central have nothing specific to do with copyright (or breaking it, as the reverse open circle might suggest) and the dollar sign in programming has no relation to currency.

How do you establish a new meaning for a well-known symbol?

By using it in that meaning.

Let us suppose that in your text you want to establish the question mark as a symbol for a god. To do that, you could introduce the symbol and this meaning in a scene, where a character regards the symbol and thinks of or learns its meaning:

Over the altar was what looked like a reversed letter S, with a circle below it.
"What does that serpentine line over the dot mean?", John asked.
"It's a symbol for the new god", Ann explained.

After this introduction you keep using the symbol in this meaning, while you avoid mentioning the old meaning. For example, do not write that "John was hunted by a group of men with question marks on their shoulders". Either give the symbol a name (e.g. "the symbol of [name of god]") or always describe it ("... with the god's wavy line and dot on their shoulders.").

This practice works well, as has been shown in the Third Wave experiment, where a cupped hand – originally a sign for "holding [water]" – became a symbol for being a member of a (fascist) community.

But symbols work best when their new meaning is related to the old one. If it isn't, those of your readers who recognize the original symbol, will wonder what the relation is and what you intended with your use of that symbol.

posted about 5 years ago

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System‭

3221 reputation 147 213 552 0

If it is a well known symbol, I sincerely doubt it; unless you are writing a farce or comedy.

The issue is I don't think the reader can divorce themselves from the symbol triggering the well-known meaning. As an example, for an American, "FBI" means one thing, it is a symbol. No matter what you do in your book or movie, "FBI" is going to trigger the well-known meaning, period. They may also remember you want it to mean something different, but that will be a secondary thought. This is a physical, biological phenomenon: Neurons are and neural pathways are physical things and cannot be un-grown or put aside for the purpose of your story; they are going to fire and trigger their mental models of the real "FBI" whether you like it or not.

The same goes for visual symbols. The swastika used to mean other things, some of them spiritual, but once it became appropriated as the symbol of Fascist Germany under Hitler; forget it. You will never supplant that meaning or prevent that meaning from being triggered; the swastika will likely represent Hitler's Germany for many centuries. The same goes for the Christian Cross, the Hammer and Sickle for Communism, etc.

Now, this is a biological phenomenon you can exploit in a farce or comedy movie. Say our human crew lands on an alien planet (or in the future) where raising the middle finger solo is a gesture to be taken as a compliment on your style. If not overdone, a writer could wring some laughs out of that, but that is because the audience is programmed to realize the dichotomy of the humans seeing one thing and the aliens meaning another, and perhaps vice versa; the aliens taking as a compliment what was intended as an angry insult. And then the humans get used to it, and come home and use it as a compliment which gets taken as an insult.

The only reason I can think one might do this is to force this dichotomy thinking in the reader, as we might want to do in comedy. Other than that, I'd use some imagination and come up with a unique signal. Or appropriate one that is not very well known at all; for example there is a ton of art and religion iconography that only a very tiny percentage of people would know is being used incorrectly or doesn't mean what you claim it means. If your alternative meaning isn't going to cause any cognitive dissonance in 98% of the audience, no big deal.

posted about 5 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Amadeus‭

3156 reputation 2 1399 613 37

Can you completely replace the meaning in the reader's mind? Probably not - it's pretty similar to trying to change the definition of a word. What might be easier is the change the symbol's meaning for your PoV characters. Try showing the change from their perspectives.

Add some event that makes the question their initial beliefs, and eventually discard those beliefs. Then slowly build up the new meaning in their mind. Show why that symbol has a new meaning.

To use Rasdashan's shield example: Suppose the shield is adopted as the symbol of a newly-formed political party (to show that they're pledging to protect the country from some threat). This political party manages to get a psychopathic dictator elected. The shield, once a symbol of protection, is now a symbol of oppression in your world. Show your characters reacting to the change - have your MC look at someone carrying a shield and think "There's someone who might break down my door at 4 A.M."

posted about 5 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Evil Sparrow‭

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