Use your Allusion

OK, I'm over-thinking this, which usually leads me to do absolutely nothing, so I'll take a different approach. Here's something where I do not have a fully formed thought before I compose the post. Hey, this is ultimately a writing exercise anyway, so all roads must be explored.

Anyway, I've been reading my posts and noticing how often I make allusions. There are worse literary devices, but nothing endures overuse very well, so why do I keep going back to them? If one takes a dismal view, allusions often are the hallmark of intellectual laziness. An author hijacks the emotions evoked by an event or a work of art for her own purposes. Or it could be exclusionary, something designed to cut out the squares from the audience; if you don't get the reference, you have no business being here.

But let us take the more charitable view. I throw allusions out as means to strike a commonality with readers. Even with people one knows well, communication is problematic at best; we try to organize the chaos in our minds into something that language can convey, say our peace and hope for the best. In that context, all bets are off, and anything that can simplify the process should be in bounds. Really, shared experiences make up the foundation of any relationship merely by making it easier to talk to each other. All an allusion does is make it possible for people who might not know each other well to find common ground.

Star Trek: The Next Generation ran a very good episode near the end of its run where Picard was stranded on a planet with an alien starship captain played by Paul Winfield. At first Picard found communication with Winfield impossible until realizing that Winfield's culture spoke in nothing but allusions to their culture's foundational Creation story. Now obviously, this premise does not bear close examination, unless one can imagine a nuclear physics textbook written wholly in allusions. Only actors as skilled as Patrick Stewart and Paul Winfield could pull this off. But the scene where Picard bridges the gap by telling the story of Gilgamesh shows the power of allusions to bring people together.