One Big Story

When Thomas C. Foster says, "writing and telling belong to one big story", he means that writers are influenced by what they have read and experienced and their works are reflections of that. There are many patterns in reading such as same settings throughout different stories or same plot with different characters. Foster also says, "stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems" (Foster 28), meaning that writers just add onto this one big story with their own twist. There are no original works because it is all one story. This idea adds to the richness of reading because if all stories are a part of one big story, then the connections between texts are easier to see once the concept is understood.
The story has a new, deeper meaning if this idea is applied because it allows the reader to dig deeper into connecting stories to other stories. The plot of one story may connect to the reader more if the reader starts to look at the little things in the plot of stories such as a character falling or tripping in a hole and thinking back to Alice in Wonderland when Alice fell through the rabbit hole. Seeing how the two texts connect could bring more satisfaction and a deeper meaning to the reader and the book.
I have seen this principle in action a lot and did not even realize it. This books mentions how Shakespeare is in almost everything and I started noticing it. Romeo and Juliet is a very popular plot and examples of forbidden love are found everywhere. There are tons of movies involving this plot such as Why Him, Pretty in Pink, and The Notebook. The most obvious example would be Taylor Swift's song Love Story, which even directly mentions Romeo and Juliet in the lyrics.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 4, 2017 at 8:38 PM

    There are quite a few great points made in this article, and I'd like to point out my favorite that I have been thinking on for quite a while now. In the first line of the blog in reads, "...he means that writers are influenced by what they have read and experienced and their works are reflections of that. There are many patterns in reading..." This whole point made in the author's text had me thinking about art (because literature and prose is definitely one of my favorite art forms) and worrying, because essentially it implies that nobody is "creative", at least by the first definition that comes to mind. That's when I decided to look up creativity, and according to dictionary.com, creativity is, "...the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations..." while this implies creativity is solely dependent on "originality", the definition also makes clear that creativity takes a measure of progressiveness when in comes to furthering already established ideas. Even dictionary.com used the example of creativity as "Extensive reading stimulated his creativity." This is something that I feel inspires a lot of people, and I think it's probably my most beautiful takeaway from reading the novel.

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  2. Brenlin Van CampJuly 7, 2017 at 9:11 AM

    Like you said in the blog, all stories are connected in one way or another. I like the idea of this because it can ultimately help a student create a deep comprehension of the text they are studying. You were successful and clear in your organization and understanding of the text throughout your blog. When you included the evidence from Foster’s book and Alice In Wonderland, it cleared up the point you were trying to cross over to your blog readers. I agree with how you involved one of the most common plots of today’s movies and books, forbidden love, making sure to relate it back to Romeo and Juliet, making it a prime example.

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