One Big Story (Prompt #2)

Thomas C. Foster claims that every author taps into a previous author's imagination and stories in order to write their own and this process can be seen as every book being a part of "one big story". This is an interesting theory because people are usually obsessed with their work being original and unique, and here Foster explains that even the best writers are influenced by previous work and reference it in their own stories. This idea adds so much more appreciation to the experience of reading because it shows how connected human beings are. It's interesting to see how writings from hundreds of years ago can imitate or influence authors of the modern era. Personally, I find it easy to reference this theory to how music is created. For example, artists almost all of the time take previous beats or sound recordings and reuse them as an instrument or a different sound recording in a new song. Just like writing some of the greatest artists became famous by their ability to sample recordings and turn them into masterpieces and new forms of art. This action of music sampling is the same as authors intentionally or non-intentionally reusing previous writer's thoughts in the literary world. I have not experienced noticing when an author imitates a previous writing style or ideas. After reading Foster's book I have a much greater idea of this theory and I'll be able to search for it and be more apparent to it in any future readings.

Conner Way

Comments

  1. collindthomasJuly 14, 2017 at 7:29 AM

    Conner, this is a good summary of all of Fosters thoughts and feelings on how humans are connected throughout history (even though literary and musical authors and writers may not realize it) I really liked your personal analogy of music and how you compared music to writing throughout history. I would have never thought of that comparison myself but now that you have brought it up the similarities are clear. The sampling of music is a lot more clear today in our culture as reading has become one of the less common ways of learning. Not to mention that reading has become less popular in general. This is a great summary of Foster's thoughts and your personal connection to music is insightful.

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  2. UnknownJuly 19, 2017 at 7:44 AM

    Conner, I also find the theory to be interesting because people are usually obsessed with their work being original and unique but in reality nothing is truly original and I feel that is what most writers and especially musicians struggle coming to terms with. I think it is really cool of how you brought up sampling in the music industry and how often it happens. This made me also think of all the new generation rappers and how they claim that they sound different from the older ones and the competition for originality. I think the reference you created between literature and music is awesome. Overall, you really connected to this prompt and you really answered the prompt completely.

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  3. Sophia HaddoxJuly 27, 2017 at 2:12 PM

    This is a great analysis of Foster's theory on "one big story". It is an interesting point that some authors feel like they are creating an original masterpiece as opposed to contributing to the grand spectrum of all stories. It is also interesting how you compared stories to music. Even as music changes through history it still holds the ability to evoke a particular emotion out of someone else. Music did not even occur to me as a parallel to literature but it is the perfect comparison. In the way society changes and the current events differ than one hundred years ago, it is true that particular notes can bring us the same feeling.

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