: Re: Sometimes a banana is just a banana Often reading analyses of books and films, I find that the analytics derive conclusions from the specific food or beverage that a character consumes. The

@Ravi5107385

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Actually a banana is always just a banana. A banana never means anything other than a banana.

What can have all those other meanings are your words and your vision of what happens. If you write "banana", there is a reason you write "banana". If you imagine the fruit in question is a "banana", there is a reason you are thinking about a "banana".

IMHO what you need to think is whether there is an actual reason for it to be a particular fruit or flower. If there is, tell that reason. If there is not, do not waste readers limited brain capacity by mentioning useless details.

Especially in speculative genres like fantasy there is a tendency by readers to assume that anything that the author bothers to detail has some relevance. This can be fun and can add depth but the choice you make about what you detail matters. If you mention specific fruits without a clear reason why you are mentioning the names, it is reasonable to assume the specific fruit has some hidden meaning.

So yes, if you tell bananas are being eaten and you do not give a reason why you are mentioning this, a banana ceases to be just a banana. Instead it becomes a banana with a hidden meaning.

If your message is that the food and decorations change with the seasons and availability, mentioning names is not really relevant. Majority of readers will not know when a specific fruit or flower is in season anyway. Just show the available selections changing and characters reacting to it.

The reaction can of course be to specific fruit. Somebody could really like bananas and be happy to get them or disappointed to not get them, for example. Having bananas might allow making a specific dish that leads to something worth mentioning.

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