All Your References Are Belong to Us

How often do you hear about that accidental reference you made? How often do you stumble upon the mentions of certain works in the cinema, video games, and literature? I bet that often enough, since the modern "storytelling industry", being a part of the entertaining pop culture machine, is built on the references and intertextuality, and these "inner messages" are no longer something special or new.

Reference is a simplified name of reminiscence, one of the forms of mention, along with the quote. Reminiscence implies an appeal to the images of the past in art, expressing in such forms as an allusion, an homage or a tribute, and prototyping. A quotation without specifying the author can belong to the reminiscence, but it is more something like an intermediate stage. Since reminiscence does have a creative nature, its elements have always been found in human, mostly informal communication: examples are idioms, catch phrases, folk characters, and the folklore itself. Nowadays the verbal references as a form of reminiscence are backed up by mass culture, and most of them have a humorous basis. However, the popularity of references affects their frequency and quality; often many overuse them, seeing nothing wrong with that. The level of a decent reference, either humorous, verbal or artistic, depends on five basic factors:

1. Context. Any reference should be related to the situation itself and have a goal, otherwise it is a "reference for the sake of reference". Such mentions are usually used as a fan service in some media. Howbeit, before you refer to something, it is highly recommended to think mindfully, because there is no additional context in the case of communication; the object, on which basis of the reference is built, is the context itself.
2. Quality. As it has been said earlier, the reminiscence can acquire many forms, providing various tools to refer, waiting for an author who will wisely use them.
3. Clarity. Works only with the verbal references. In the environment of yours should be at least one person who is capable of understanding the reference. The level of its complexity, as well as the appealing to a particular community, is important too.
4. Quantity. Regardless of whether it is artistic or verbal reference, one should not overdo with their concentration, unless the composition doesn't set a goal to deconstruct a reference itself or to achieve the comic effect via the trope of permanent reminiscence.
5. Diversity. Be it a real or a virtual social environment that disposes of informal communication and in which references are a kind of tradition, you should not get hung up on a specific theme, because the flow of monotonous references is a force which can not only trigger the other people's anger, but in some cases even spoil the impression of the reference object. By their essence the references cannot be unconscious or accidental, but specifically because of this contradiction a "Is this an X reference?" meme exists, which, unfortunately, is overused too.

After all, the reference and mention are inherent in the very nature of our consciousness, way of thinking, and mind, and also the perception of time: we simply cannot not to refer to the past. Postmodernism exploits this mention, which gives rise to the popularity of references both as an form of humor and an important, yet accessible element of the storytelling.