One Story
"On one level, everyone who writes anything knows that pure originality is impossible" (Foster, 187).
When I write I know I think of things that have happened to me but I also am thinking about other stories I have read. "Everywhere you look, the ground is already camped on. So you sigh and pitch your tent where you can, knowing someone else has been there before" (Foster, 187). That quote is perfect because it is true in everyway. All kinds of literature has been written about all ideas and experiences in life.
Writing is a difficult thing to do, solely because you don't want to repeat something that has already been written. There is no "one story" There is no word to use that no one else has never used. The same thing goes for movies as mentioned later in the Interlude. "The movies you have seen were created by men and womenwho had seen others, and so on, until every movie connects with every other movie ever made" (Foster, 190). So nothing is original but everything is has it's own twist to make it different..
I always find it interesting whenever I see movies or read books that are very similar but are different at the same time. You usually know what happens at the end if you've already seen one of the same kind but you still want to see or read it, which is a good thing or the authors and producers would not make much money.
So in reality, there is one story for each subject, but told in different ways.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL267/2009/02/foster_how_to_read_literature_3/
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Marie vanMaanen on One Story: I think it's interesting how t
Matt Henderson on One Story: The trick, though, is making s
The trick, though, is making sure that you haven't put a twist on a story that someone else has already twisted in the same way. This is something I haven't thought so much about before, but even original approaches that an author thinks are original may not be if the author hasn't kept up with a lot of contemporary literature. You still have to use the same basic framework, but you don't want to make it derivative of someone else's take on the same story. Of course, it's hard to be derivative of something you haven't read, so maybe it's a moot point. I just think it's important to take a story that's been twisted a certain way and then twist it into something else entirely. Then you can be like Chubby Checker and do the twist. Okay, I'm done rambling.
I think it's interesting how this idea of one story comes up again in the interlude. I think it is an important idea that does need to be paid attention to. I like how you point out that if you've seen similar movies or read similar books you often know what will happen at the end. This has happened to me many times that I can predict the end of a story halfway through. I do always finish the movie or book though even if I know what's going to happen. I think it is because there is usually some little twist that we don't expect that makes each story slightly different.
Marie: I always finish books and movies too because yes everything has a little bit of a different ending that it still worth reading so you know what happens.