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HTRLLAP

HTRLLAP. Tom Foster is a smart man. 1. The Quest. The quest has five major components. The Quester. A place to go. Stated reason to go there. Challenges and trials en route. A real reason to go there. The real reason for going on a quest is always self knowledge.

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HTRLLAP

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  1. HTRLLAP Tom Foster is a smart man.

  2. 1. The Quest • The quest has five major components. • The Quester. • A place to go. • Stated reason to go there. • Challenges and trials en route. • A real reason to go there. • The real reason for going on a quest is always self knowledge. • Questers are often young, immature, or sheltered.

  3. 2. Eating • Eating is an act of communion and a way of communication. • This does not mean that every time someone eats with someone else in literature that they are sharing a religious experience. • Meals signify sharing some sort of experience. For instance, intimacy or shared misery could be substituted. • A failed meal can be a bad sign.

  4. 3. Ghosts/Vampires • Ghosts and vampires are never about ghosts and vampires. • What these beings do represent is an older figure who embodies corruption, outworn values, etc. • They usually prey on a younger, virginal female who will be stripped of her youth. • The male’s life-force will continue, where the female will be destroyed.

  5. 5. Where Have I Seen This Before • There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature. • All stories sprout from some other story or from some experience that has contributed to the idea behind a story. • We call this idea “intertextuality”. • See last slide.

  6. 7. The Bible • Almost every literary allusion comes from one of two places. The first place is the Bible. The other is good ole Willy Shakespeare. • Biblically, though, each story about the loss of innocence is really about someone’s private reenactment of the fall from grace, since we experience it not collectively, but individually and subjectively.

  7. 9. Greek • Myth matters. • It is a huge body of work. • It seeks to explain the deepest of human fear and emotion; that which cannot be explained by math, physics, science, etc.

  8. 10. The Weather • It is never just rain • Drowning is a deep fear. • Rain is the “big eraser”. • Rain is a great plot device. • Rain is mysterious, causes misery, and falls on everyone equally. • Rain is a symbolic cleanser. • Fog = Confusion • Snow = Purity, blanketing, and evil.

  9. 11. Violence • Violence is an intimate act. • Violence can be symbolic for many things.

  10. 14. Christ Figures • See the Christ Figure Chapter for a complete list. • Partner assignment! • Yay!

  11. 15. Flight • Flight = Freedom. • Enough said.

  12. 16. Sex • Sex, one of everyone’s favorite things to talk about, is rarely explicitly discussed in literature. • However, sexual imagery is pervasive and there are often strong sexual undertones in a book or story. • For instance, a man and woman are having an intimate dinner together and things start to get heated. The train they are riding enters a tunnel. The chapter ends.

  13. 17. Geography • You send characters south so that they can run amok. • South also means raw encounters with the subconscious. • Heading west usually means you are heading someplace in order to discover. The west is wild, untamed, progressive, and sometimes dangerous (beat literature, Jim Morrison poetry)

  14. 18. Seasons • Fall = Middle Age • Summer = Passion • Winter = Anger • Spring = Childhood, Youth, Fertility

  15. 19. Injury and Deformity • War is the death of culture. • Injuries are present for a reason. • Illness is too.

  16. 20. Blindness • When literal blindness is at work, it is because figurative seeing and blindness are also at work.

  17. 21. Heart Disease • The heart is a symbol. • Duh. • Read a book.

  18. 22. Irony • Irony is the great eraser. It trumps all things. • If your expectations, as outlined by the previous 21 slides are subverted for some reason, it is probably ironic.

  19. 23. Read with your feelings. • If you feel like something might be going on in a book or story that you are reading, you are probably right. Just look for the evidence. • Trust your gut. • Your eyes and brain can talk you out of good ideas.

  20. 24. One Story • There is only one story. • It describes people us and the world, us in the world, the world’s effect on us, or some combination of the three. • Do you buy it?

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