When I first read that all text belongs to one big story I thought this to be bogus. This cannot be true. It seems as if most stories are original, and if they are not they are likely plagiarized. However, Foster changed my opinion through his chapter, “Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?” He explains that stories are not written in a vacuum. Stories are products of prior works; bits and pieces from stories are added and altered to form a new story. Although I understood the meaning behind “there is only one story”, I was not fully convinced. In order to comprehend this strange and complicated concept I had to break the idea into an analogy I could grasp. I thought of the one big story this way: writing is like preparing a meal. While I stir, steam, simmer, and grill I add ingredients (the story details). Although the ingredients have been used before in other meals, I have altered them and blended them with other ingredients. This meal may borrow ingredients from other recipes, but it will have an original taste.
Now that I understand and accept the one big story idea, I see that when texts weave and work together it adds richness to the reading experience. Looking at the intertextuality is not a mundane and forced task, it is enjoyable to see literature's connections. Foster says when O’Brien had his character fall through a whole, readers think of Alice in Wonderland. After readers have discovered this element they will be more aware to look for other Lewis Carroll references.
Although the one big story may be one giant cluster of ideas, it is comforting. While reading a story I now know this is not just one tiny story, but it is a collection of all the stories past, present, and future.
I believe in Professor Foster's idea of one big story. Literature grows out of other literature. Authors borrow ideas from every book, novels, plays, historical events, movies, videos, or blogs that they've ever read or seen. Thus, all these experiences with literature give them a fair advantage, it's all fair game for them to incorporate into their own creations. I do agree that there's no entirely original work of literature. I believe all writers take the best ideas from the Bible, mythology, and Shakespeare since these three iconic sources of ideas have been around for thousands of years and lasted the test of time.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I agree that all works feed into other ones. After first reading this, I too was skeptical on how all text lead into one big story. I then realized that the intertextuality we talk about in Latin might actually be true. When I closely examined different books and novels that I had read, I realized many had at least one aspect that was similar to another. I believe that most concepts and themes for stories may have already been thought of, so all literature would then be forced to correlate to one another. However, I believe there are still numerous new idea that we today cannot even fathom.
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