Allusion: Explicit Reference - Blog (November)

Hammerhead Paper Mache artwork, designed by German artist Anna Zentis

Have you ever read prose, watched a film, listened to a song or seen a work of art that directed mentioned or featured another text such as another film/song/artwork/literature piece?

I suspect that most people would've, at least once. At first glance, this featured addition can seem irrelevant and just to add some extra flavors to the work. However, these little features - called 'allusion' can tell us A LOT about the work we are delving into. 

This type of allusion predates back to BC times. In the Bible, prophets and other knowledgeable figures quote from Scripture, explaining the interpretation and bringing it full-circle in proper prophecy, so the people had clarity about the events and circumstances they were experiencing.

Earlier in 2025, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jennifer Trevelyan's debut novel 'A Beautiful Family'. I noticed that throughout the novel, the main character Alix, aged ten, would listen to Split Enz's True Colours album on her "fire-engine red Sony Walkman". It quickly became a theme in the novel, and helped me to understand the main character as a music-loving and curious little 80s Kiwi kid with a zest for life but also an innocence that shielded her from fully understanding the ripple effects that certain events had on her family. 

It is also clever that Trevelyan chose True Colours to be an imagined soundtrack for the novel because those two words is a realization we come to grips with while reading: the true colours of the characters.

A second bar this allusion jumps for us as readers in 'A Beautiful Family' is feel nostalgic. The album is a perfect ingredient in the 80s-set New Zealand novel punch, especially for readers who grew up in the 80s. They may be compelled to take their own walk man out of the storage room and take a stroll down memory lane by listening to Split Enz (now Crowded House). 

Bit more familiar? Was hoping so!

This type of allusion reveals character, it foreshadows events, it practically causes us to place that other work next to the one we're enveloped in. It gives a statement and allows us to hypothesize how the story will turn out. 

In fact, we are able to put in our own guesses BEFORE we begin! How? Movie trailers, book endorsements, artwork unveiling ceremonies, hints from musicians upon announcing new albums or singles. They might say something like "Jane Austen meets F. Scott Fitzgerald" or "Picasso meets graffiti."

We are the fish; that is the bait. 

Recently, a marketing consultant I am partnering with for a collaboration said in a sales copy they prepared for my debut contemporary romance The Chasm Between Us: "For fans of Colleen Hoover, Mitch Albom, and Fredrik Backman."

So what's the effect of practically incorporating other works as features/symbols, or using them as hooks in the lead-up to a release?

The audience will actively think about that other text/artist/film, etc. In turn that can spark conversations - in real life, in the media, on socials. More people hear about what/who influenced and inspired it - or can be compared to - then they go and check out those other works.

Before you know it, there's a bunch of enthusiastic audience members waiting for the show to begin who have their own ideas of what the narrative will be, and what the characters and world-building will be like. Maybe even the tone of the language, and how it could end.

My tip: make your own conclusions though they might be illusions. 

In essence, the past inspires the future. Creators all over the world place labels on their works - labels that their audience will hopefully know and be enticed by.

There is a final primary strategy that this "bite the bait" explicit reference allusion can do: support local creatives. Being in a creative career isn't always easy - tougher for some who lack resources, funding or are situated somewhere with a small market and an non-ideal target audience. Therefore, alluding to local creatives can have the ripple effect of sparking conversation and display growth for that party's following/outreach.

Some are called to film, others to writing, others to art, and yet others to music. In the long-run, however, we should all have each other's backs. Though we play on different corners, we are all on the same field.

I hope you found this month's blog post about allusion to other works comprehensive and interesting. Next time you see an old Dickens' classic featured in a film or a book mentions a 70s album in passing, don't be hasty to skim over it! Dig a little deeper! What can the messages behind that work be telling us about the one we are investing in?

"Vanessa knew the only thing I was interested in was cassette tapes - I was the proud owner of a fire-engine red Sony Walkman, which I had brought on holiday with me, along with my one and only cassette tape: True Colours by Split Enz."... "It was my most prized possession in all the world, and more than anything I wanted more tapes to put inside it, more albums by Split Enz." - Jennifer Trevelyan, A Beautiful Family.