Wave Symbolism

Storytellers have long utilised the symbolism of dreams, which apply equally when we’re awake.

Around the world, we all have a similar visceral reaction to forests, the colour red, skulls… In fiction these universal symbols indeed say something deeper about our collective anxieties and fixations. Same goes for waves.

Waves can emulate the turbulence of human emotion, from extreme happiness to dark lows.

Waves also symbolise adventure.

The Perilous Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor illustration by Caroline Sharpe 1974

What is the universal symbol of climate change? I can tell you already. It’s waves. I listened to an interview with an Australian climate change scientist who has recently decided to open up about her climate crisis anxiety. Other climate change scientists have thanked her for her honesty. Sounds like they’re all having these dreams. Dreams about massive waves crashing onto shore. In some dreams this particular scientist is sucked in by the wave; in others she’s trying to run away. 

This imagery is echoed in a British cartoon that came through my feed last month: three waves in increasing order of magnitude, the smallest labeled ‘Pandemic’, the next labeled ‘Brexit’, the biggest labeled ‘Climate Change’.

If you haven’t joined us already, when you start having nightmares about waves, then you’ll know you’re viscerally feeling our climate crisis.

WAVES ARE LIKE URGES… URGES ARE LIKE WAVES

THE GENTLE, LOLLING WAVE

In contrast to the terrifying, subsume everything, tsunami-esque wave we have the gentle wave which creates a rolling motion, sending us off to sleep.

For a picture book version of this sort of wave, see “The Wreck of the Zephyr” by Chris Van Allsburg. Despite “wreck” in the title, this is a gentle, dreamy book.

Mists and Magic chosen and edited by Dorothy Edwards illustrated by Jill Bennett
Frederick Judd Waugh (American artist) 1861-1940
‘The Wave,’ (1944) Victor Pasmore
By Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)–Ill. f. Undine, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1909)
Danaë and the Infant Perseus from 1922 for the book A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys by Arthur Rackham
Danaë and the Infant Perseus from 1922 for the book A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys by Arthur Rackham
Ladies Home Journal Magazine – August 1920
Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep
ひとり 谷川俊太郎 三輪滋 1982
Victor J. Bertoglio (1911- 1974) 1949 illustration for an edition of 'South' by Ernest Shackleton boat
Victor J. Bertoglio (1911- 1974) 1949 illustration for an edition of ‘South’ by Ernest Shackleton
for poem Little Tee Wee by John Heard in Sea Stories 2007
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Ivan Bilibin (1876 - 1942) 1937 illustration for The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
Ivan Bilibin (1876 – 1942) 1937 illustration for The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
John Patience - The Little Mermaid
John Patience – The Little Mermaid
FEODORA (1947) Jan Goeting
FEODORA (1947) Jan Goeting
Tanglewood Tales, Greek mythology for kids, 1921 illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett
Tanglewood Tales, Greek mythology for kids, 1921 illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett
Easy Answers to Hard Questions pictures by Susan Perl text by Susanne Kirtland (1968) where do waves come from
Easy Answers to Hard Questions pictures by Susan Perl text by Susanne Kirtland (1968) where do waves come from
Art Lover (Tired Museum Feet), Stevan Dohanos, 1956
Art Lover (Tired Museum Feet), Stevan Dohanos, 1956
William Bouguereau - The Wave 1896
William Bouguereau – The Wave 1896
Janusz Stanny - The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
Janusz Stanny – The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
Hillary Knight's illustrations for 'Where's Wallace' 1964
Hillary Knight’s illustrations for ‘Where’s Wallace’ 1964
Shimizu Yūko 清水裕子, Japanese illustrator
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Dream boats and other stories 1920 by Dugald Stewart Walker
Europa and the Bull, American Illustrator Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931)
Europa and the Bull, American Illustrator Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931)
Nikifor Rashchektayev – The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
JS Bach (Various) – Leonid Kogan with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Ackermann art by John Copeland
Sailing ship on raging waves, anonymous, after Pieter Bruegel (I), 1600 - 1625
Sailing ship on raging waves, anonymous, after Pieter Bruegel (I), 1600 – 1625
Winslow Homer - The Life-Line waves
Winslow Homer – The Life-Line

Below: Alexander Pushkin’s Tale of Tsar Saltan illustrated by Ivan Bilibin

LADY FILMY FERN or The Voyage of the Window Box (early 1930s and 1980) Edward Bawden waves
LADY FILMY FERN or The Voyage of the Window Box (early 1930s and 1980) Edward Bawden waves
NACHTMERRIE OVER NEDERLAND (1945) L.J. Jordan the tidal wave
Illustration from In Search of the Castaways by Jules Verne, 1873 by Edouard Riou wave
Webster Murray (ca1900-1957) ‘Arctic Antics’ Illustration for the London Illustrated News, 1928, mermaids wave
Patrick von Kalckreuth (1898 - 1970) The North Sea, 1955 waves
Patrick von Kalckreuth (1898 – 1970) The North Sea, 1955

The Biblical scene of the parting of the sea is almost a story which suggests the taming of the wave: the ultimate in supernatural prowess. The illustration below could also be of two tsunamis, but no, the waves are (presumably) static.

Arnold Friberg 10 Commandments sea

SEE ALSO

The tsunami has swept everything away—including Kenta’s most prized possession, his soccer ball. When tragedy strikes Kenta’s small village in Japan, he does all he can to hang on to the things that matter to him most. But amidst the chaos of an emergency evacuation brought on by the tsunami, Kenta and his family must quickly leave their home, taking with them only the barest necessities. Climbing to safer ground, Kenta watches helplessly as his prized soccer ball goes bouncing down a hill and gets swept away by the waves, never to be seen again… that is until it washes up on a beach on the other side of the world, into the hands of a child who takes it upon himself to return the ball to its rightful owner. In this evocative picture book, Ruth Ohi’s glowing art transports the reader to Japan with gentle images that offer reassurance amidst the background of an environmental catastrophe. Inspired by true stories of personal items being washed ashore thousands of miles away after the tsunami of 2011, Kenta and the Big Wave is about the strength of the human spirit and the power of Mother Nature. Including an afterword explaining tsunamis to young readers.

Deep Impact 1988

I could write an entire piece on White’s decision to turn crashing waves into the visual leitmotif of the season (series?); here is nature at its most violent yet also its most beautiful. There’s a forcefulness that feels weighted yet also ethereal. One that speaks to an inevitability; waves will crash and crash and crash…you can’t escape from them, can only learn to avoid them, or ride them, or maybe just get washed over by them. Oh, that’s before you begin to see how he’s often used them as stand-ins for orgiastic pleasures…. See? So many meanings! So little time to unpack them all!

Season Two of The White Lotus recap from AV Club

Ocean symbolism

Header illustration: 1917, illustrator unknown to me

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

PAPERBACK

KINDLE EBOOK

MORE INFO

error: Content is protected