Only One Story

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Harper Collins, 2003.

This book fits under my "learning to read" category. I enjoyed this accessible and entertaining guide to reading literature. The two books I am most interested in reading are Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, which Foster refers to in many of the chapters, and Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato.

I am most intrigued by Foster's emphasis, more than once in his book, that "there's only one story...Ever. One." (p. 32) He gives this topic a whole chapter in the Interlude. He asks what this one story is about and replies, "That's probably the best question you'll ever ask, and I apologize for responding with a really lame answer: I don't know....I suppose what the one story, the ur-story, is about is ourselves, about what it means to be human. I mean, what else is there?" (p. 186)

Is this like Paul's finding a statue to an unknown god? Can we know the story that all storytellers have been trying to tell? I will take this as I read from here on out and see how storytellers answer the question...what does it mean to be human?