A big thing you have to develop early in any English class is that ability to look at a story and find the meaning of things. It's not necessarily figuring out the plot of the story, although the plot often plays into the greater meaning of the piece. You need to know the history surrounding when a story was originally released to get where a lot of the references and allusions come from. You also need to be able to see how the story fits into the accepted social themes of that particular time, to know when they are examining the larger issues of that time period or if they are just out to entertain you. It's always about finding the symbols throughout the story and pulling a larger context out for discussion. Probably the biggest skill you can develop as an English major though is the simple skill of effectively bullshitting an answer. Finding that small area of expertise you can bring to the arena and expounding the hell out of it. I had a friend in college who could always find some way to get an underlying gay tone out of any story. Now granted he did focus a lot of his classes around the Victorian Era, so repressed sexual undertones are a dime a dozen, but I was always impressed by the sheer number of prompts he could pull out of that particular idea. I will admit though that bullshitting has never been my strongest suite, I can usually see enough of the symbolism to pull a discussion out but expanding it into a full argument is a struggle. But what little bullshitting I managed to develop in college has definitely help out with the blog, giving me just enough ability to come up with some meaning for a sticker when I share it with you guys. Unfortunately those skills are falling up short on this one.
I decided to share this sticker because I do find it to be an interesting design. I love all of the details in the owl and...well I do generally just like owls. There is a previous post where I looked at a different owl and the general symbolism the bird tends to stand for, but as a quick reminder the owl typically stands for wisdom here in the West. Although it can also be a harbinger of death or associated with femininity, you know these go. Going back to the sticker, I also find the can to an odd yet intriguing addition to the sticker. I would say with the frown and the x-ed out eyes that this is representing something that is bad for you. My initial reaction would therefore be beer, since it is the alcohol you would find in a can, but it's not like soda is all that good for you either. And here is where I get stuck with this tonight, both of these images are part of the same sticker so somehow they fit together to mean... something. Now this could just be something like Owl Beer, which there are actually a couple of companies that either have an owl involved in their name or have a draft using it. Or it could be a statement against improperly disposing of your cans/waste and how it affects the wildlife. However, while either of these ideas could fit the bill, a large part of me feels like there is something I'm missing about this picture. Is it saying that it's wiser to avoid poisonous everyday substances? Is this owl a particular species that changes the way you would read it? If this was the only instance of seeing this sticker I'd probably just write it off as someone drawing two images they thought were cool, but I've seen this sticker quite a few times. I feel like there is something here, I'm just missing it. Do any of you have possible interpretations you'd like to share? I'd greatly appreciate it if you do :).
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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