Blog Response to Prompt #2 (Wood)

Foster’s statement that “all writing and telling belong to one big story” can be interpreted as having two meanings. The first is literal, a play on the saying “once you’ve read the dictionary, everything else is just a remix,” meaning every book is a new selection from, and ordering of, the same set of concepts predefined by the parameters of human communication. The second, Foster’s main point, is more figurative and implies that all stories, even those that are purely fictional, showcase some aspect of the human experience and are therefore all connected under the umbrella of the human condition. As such, phrases, themes, character types, scenarios, and plot points carrying the same meanings and/or implications often carry across different stories. This can range from intentional references to universal concepts. This view of reading materials as pieces of a massive literary puzzle enhances the reading experience by allowing it to develop from an intellectually passive activity of simply sitting back and reading the words at face value to an intellectually active pastime of connecting the elements of the current text to elements of previous texts to better understand the “one big story.”

 An example of the more direct, intentional connections can be seen with the book and hit musical “Wicked,” which works to directly build off of “The Wizard of Oz,” taking the flat characters of the previous text, such as the purely and inexplicably evil witch, and exploring their humanity. Less direct correlations can be seen in the classic Disney princess stories. Whether it’s Snow White or Cinderella,the character formula is the same: threatening, wicked step mother; innocent, beautiful princess; and the dashing prince that sweeps her off her feet. This formula doesn’t just work for princesses though, take Harry Potter: innocent and (internally) beautiful, he serves as the princess of his story, trapped in the custody of the threatening, wicked Dursleys, until one day his prince (in this case, gruff half-giant, Hagrid) quite literally sweeps him off his feet and into the world of magic.