Allusion is a vocabulary word that we learn somewhere around high school or secondary school, and that is where it stays – for most of us. The allusion is a callback to a previous work of literature such as the nursery rhymes in WH Auden’s “As I Walked Out One Evening” or any reference to Greek mythologies in modern works, or a shoutout to Beyonce in that bingeable TV series you’ve been mainlining on Netflix. It’s a brief mention that operates a little like an in-joke, to the educated folk who know what’s going on, and a little like shorthand to illuminate a point to the reader without going into detail or grave expense of the story.

All works exist within the greater conversation of concepts that we are constantly having with one another even if we are speaking different languages or living in different millenia. Think of the conversation of zombies. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies exists in part because we are already familiar with two pieces: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and zombies.

Your allusion choice may anchor a piece in time or attitude, or may say something about the understanding of the characters and thus say something about their class, education, means of understanding the world and events happening around them.

Consider your allusions carefully. They will always say more about you, and the time in which you exist, the media you consume, and your understanding of the world and the events going on around you, than you think you are saying about your characters.

Consider also that a work without allusions risks feeling anchorless, unmoored from the conversation taking place in that space today.