1. Every Trip is a Quest (except when it's not):
a. A quester
b. A place to go
c. A stated reason to go there
d. Challenges and trials
e. The real reason to go-always self-knowledge
2. Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion
a. Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion
b. Not usually religious
c. An act of sharing and peace
d. A failed meal carries negative connotations
3. Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
a. Literal Vampirism: Nasty old man, attractive but evil,violates a young woman, leaves his mark, takes her innocence
b. Sexual implications-a trait of 19th century literature toaddress sex indirectly
c. Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal torespect the autonomy of other people, using people to get what wewant, placing our desires, particularly ugly ones, above the needsof another.
4. If It's Square, It's a Sonnet
5. Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
a. There is no such thing as a wholly original work ofliterature-stories grow out of other stories, poems out of otherpoems.
b. There is only one story-of humanity and human nature,endlessly repeated
c. "Intertexuality"-recognizing the connections between onestory and another deepens our appreciation and experience, bringsmultiple layers of meaning to the text, which we may not beconscious of. The more consciously aware we are, the more alive thetext becomes to us.
d. If you don't recognize the correspondences, it's ok. If astory is no good, being based on Hamlet won't save it.
6. When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare…
a. Writers use what is common in a culture as a kind ofshorthand. Shakespeare is pervasive, so he is frequentlyechoed.
b. See plays as a pattern, either in plot or theme or both.Examples:
i. Hamlet: heroic character, revenge, indecision, melancholynature
ii. Henry IV-a young man who must grow up to become king, takeon his responsibilities
iii. Othello-jealousy
iv. Merchant of Venice-justice vs. mercy
v. King Lear-aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool
7. …Or the Bible
a. Before the mid 20th century, writers could count on peoplebeing very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone awriter can tap
b. Common Biblical stories with symbolic implications
i. Garden of Eden: women tempting men and causing their fall,the apple as symbolic of an object of temptation, a serpent whotempts men to do evil, and a fall from innocence
ii. David and Goliath-overcoming overwhelming odds
iii. Jonah and the Whale-refusing to face a task and being"eaten" or overwhelmed by it anyway.
iv. Job: facing disasters not of the character's making and notthe character's fault, suffers as a result, but remainssteadfast
v. The Flood: rain as a form of destruction; rainbow as apromise of restoration
vi. Christ figures (a later chapter): in 20th century, oftenused ironically
vii. The Apocalypse-Four Horseman of the Apocalypse usher in theend of the world.
viii. Biblical names often draw a connection between literarycharacter and Biblical charcter.
8. Hanseldee and Greteldum--using Fairy Tales and kid lit
a. Hansel and Gretel: lost children trying to find their wayhome
b. Peter Pan: refusing to grow up, lost boys, agirl-nurturer/
c. Little Red Riding Hood: See Vampires
d. Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz: entering a world thatdoesn't work rationally or operates under different rules, the RedQueen, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Wicked Witch of theWest, the Wizard, who is a fraud
e. Cinderella: orphaned girl abused by adopted family savedthrough supernatural intervention and by marrying a prince
f. Snow White: Evil woman who brings death to an innocent-again,saved by heroic/princely character
g. Sleeping Beauty: a girl becoming a woman, symbolically, theneedle, blood=womanhood, the long sleep an avoidance of growing upand becoming a married woman, saved by, guess who, a prince whofights evil on her behalf.
h. Evil Stepmothers, Queens, Rumpelstilskin
i. Prince Charming heroes who rescue women. (20th c. frequentlyswitched-the women save the men-or used highly ironically)
9. It's Greek to Me
a. Myth is a body of story that matters-the patterns present inmythology run deeply in the human psyche
b. Why writers echo myth-because there's only one story (see#4)
c. Odyssey and Iliad
i. Men in an epic struggle over a woman
ii. Achilles-a small weakness in a strong man; the need tomaintain one's dignity
iii. Penelope (Odysseus's wife)-the determination to remainfaithful and to have faith
iv. Hector: The need to protect one's family
d. The Underworld-an ultimate challenge, facing the darkestparts of human nature or dealing with death
e. Metamorphoses by Ovid-transformation (Kafka)
f. Oedipus: family triangles, being blinded, dysfunctionalfamily
g. Cassandra: refusing to hear the truth
h. A wronged woman gone violent in her grief and madness
