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4a4b7f1
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Education is mostly about institutions and getting tickets stamped; learning is what we do for ourselves. When we're lucky, they go together. If I had to choose, I'd take learning.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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be56374
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Always" and "never" are not words that have much meaning in literary study. For one thing, as soon as something seems to always be true, some wise guy will come along and write something to prove that it's not."
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Thomas C. Foster |
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a2ce04a
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We - as readers or writers, tellers or listeners - understand each other, we share knowledge of the structures of our myths, we comprehend the logic of symbols, largely because we have access to the same swirl of story. We have only to reach out into the air and pluck a piece of it.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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a34d9aa
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The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves hat we would never see, never permit ourselves to see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again
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novels
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Thomas C. Foster |
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5fa727b
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Reading...is a full-contact sport; we crash up against the wave of words with all of our intellectual, imaginative, and emotional resources.
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reading
sports
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Thomas C. Foster |
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645fb30
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So what did you think the devil would look like? If he were red with a tail, horns, and cloven hooves, any fool could say no.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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c7e432c
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His argument runs like this: there is no goodness without free will. Without the ability to freely choose-or reject-the good, an individual possesses no control over his own soul, and without that control, there is not possibility of attaining grace. In the language of Christianity, a beliver cannot be saved unless the choice to follow Christ is freely made, unless the option not to follow him genuinely exists. Compelled belief is no belief..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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c88760f
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Reading is an activity of the imagination, and the imagination in question is not the writer's alone.
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readers-and-writers
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Thomas C. Foster |
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d448fee
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Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
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rain
false-dichotomy
universality
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Thomas C. Foster |
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1e73f72
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Every reader's experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features of the text to become more or less pronounced. We bring an individual history to our reading, a mix of previous readings, to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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e8bc213
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When it's over, we may feel wooed, adored, appreciated, or abused, but it will have been an affair to remember.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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0debab7
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The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, visions of ourselves that we would never see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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420640c
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Real people are made out of a whole lot of things--flesh, bone, blood, nerves, stuff like that. Literary people are made out of words.
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words
literature
reality
fictional-characters
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Thomas C. Foster |
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fda5347
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If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won't save it.
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writing
hamlet
stories
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Thomas C. Foster |
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c8d7a34
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Everything is a symbol of something, it seems, until proven otherwise.
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symbols
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Thomas C. Foster |
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c76512f
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Don't wait for writers to be dead to be read; the living ones can use the money.
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reading
fame
writers
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Thomas C. Foster |
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8506007
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And romance is just the place for creating mythic figures doing mythic things. Like carving 'civilzation' out of the wilderness. Like showing us what a hero looks life, a real, American, sprung-from-the soil, lethal-weapon-with-leggings, bona fide hero. And for a guy who never marries, he has a lot of offspring. Shane. The Virginian. The Ringo Kid. The Man with No Name. Just think how many actors would have had no careers without Natty Bump..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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2b4c553
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In order to remain undead, I must steal the life force of someone whose fate matters less to me than my own.' I've always supposed that Wall Street traders utter essentially the same sentence.
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vampirism
wall-street
vampires
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Thomas C. Foster |
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9b07f73
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Every novel is brand-new. It's never been written before in the history of the world. At the same time, it's merely the latest in a long line of narratives--not just novels, but narratives generally--since humans began telling stories to themselves and each other.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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55db6ca
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What happens if the writer is good is usually not that the work seems derivative or trivial but just the opposite: the work actually acquires depth and resonance from the echoes and chimes it sets up with prior texts, weight from the accumulated use of certain basic patterns and tendencies. Moreover, works are actually more comforting because we can recognize elements of them from our prior reading. I suspect that a wholly original work, on..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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dfdd9fc
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The process of dehuminazing the locals was under way, and it had very little to do with veracity. The Puritan narratives would continue that process and bring the devil into the mix. At least John Smith didn't think Satan was involved.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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b44de68
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Someone had to go first, show that there was a life to be recorded here, that this place, this new set of possibilities, could inspire a new literature. Cooper set the signpost on the road, and hearty travelers have been following it ever since.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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d13739d
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The difference between being Achilles and almost being Achilles is the difference between living and dying.
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heroes
illiad
patroclus
sidekicks
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Thomas C. Foster |
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573254d
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The real reason for quest is always self-knowledge.
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literature
writing
quest
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Thomas C. Foster |
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0d53659
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Please note, I am not suggesting that illicit drugs are required to break down social barriers.
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humor
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Thomas C. Foster |
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d84791e
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In a sense, every story or poem is a vacation.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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54b2934
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Every language has a grammar, a set of rules that govern usage and meaning, and literary language is no different. It's all more or less arbitrary of course, just like language itself.
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literature
language
grammar
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Thomas C. Foster |
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d8bada3
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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.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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ddf0130
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We have to bring our imaginations to bear on a story if we are to see all it's possibilitiess; otherwise it's just about somebody who did something. Whatever we take away from stories in the way of significance, symbolism, theme, meaning, pretty much anything except character and plot, we discover because our imagination engages with that of the author. Pretty amazing when you consider that the author may have been dead for thousands of yea..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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dd61e35
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History is story, too. You don't encounter her directly; you've only heard of her through narrative of one sort or another.
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stories
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Thomas C. Foster |
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06340a7
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Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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a8fddcb
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Don't read with your eyes.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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b04ec96
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Compelled belief is no belief at all.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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9827273
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we accept fictions as fictions, as things that might be true in their world, if not quite in ours.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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082e434
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Professors also read, and think, symbolically. Everything is a symbol of something, it seems, until proven otherwise.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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500c217
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We love the plays, the great characters, the fabulous speeches, the witty repartee even in times of duress. I hope never to be mortally stabbed, but if I am, I'd sure like to have the self-possession, when asked if it's bad, to answer, "No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve," as Mercutio does in Romeo and Juliet. I mean, to be dying and clever at the same time, how can you not love that?..
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Thomas C. Foster |
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9723946
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If to get to the finish line the hero must walk over a sea of bodies, then so be it. He can die at said line, but he's got to get there.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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5897630
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characters as rich and complex as those we believe ourselves to be
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Thomas C. Foster |
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fd231cf
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Now, Joyce being Joyce, he has about five different purposes, one not being enough for genius.
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james-joyce
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Thomas C. Foster |
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22005af
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T here's no written rule anywhere that I know of stating this, no First-teenth Amendment to the Literary Constitution, but there might as well be: you get one national poet.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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ca7637d
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What we mean when speaking of "myth" in general is story, the ability of story to explain ourselves to ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry--all very highly useful and informative in their own right--can't."
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myth
story
literature
reading
education
analysis
professor
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Thomas C. Foster |
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47326f3
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Where readers of Murdoch can begin a new novel with a quiet confidence, opening a Burgess book is an exercise in anxiety: what the devil is he up to this time?
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Thomas C. Foster |
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9598b0b
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Memory. Symbol. Pattern. These are the three items that, more than any other, separate the professorial reader from the rest of the crowd.
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Thomas C. Foster |
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83e375d
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of his need to assert responsibility for his own life. It may be that Adela does panic in the face of Nothingness, only recovering herself when she takes responsibility by recanting in the witness box. Perhaps it's all about nothing more than her own self-doubts, her own psychological or spiritual difficulties.
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Thomas C. Foster |