Entry 2

man and women.

~~Alexandria Lofton Entry 2 Thomas C. Foster has said numerous times that ideas are copied from one piece of literature to another. He believes that there is only one big story and every other story is related to that one. In a way, all of the literature in the world is connected. I too believe that this is somewhat true. Sure, authors use other author’s ideas but I don't think it's necessarily on purpose. They have an idea for a piece of work and they go with it. Intertextuality is the idea that there is no literary work is completely original. Also that all literary works are connected and have some kind of pattern to them. An example of this would be when, Tupac Shakur wrote and recorded a song called “Me and My Girlfriend” which, obviously, was about a couple who was there for each other no matter what and would be “till the end”. Later, Eminem wrote and recorded his version of this song called “98 Bonnie and Clyde”, using the same dialect as Tupac had in his version. The same idea of love is conveyed, but yet each song remains different.

Moving forward, in many of the books I read I have many likes as well as dislikes. Ill begin with some of his strategies I liked, what I’ve observed in all literature reading is that it is designed to tell people that literature is the mirror that we hold up to examine our world and to ourselves. It tells us who we are and what we want. Likewise Foster expresses a similar sentiment; when he says, “So almost any novel can teach us, and the novel has one big lesson that lies at its very root: we matter. A human life has value not because it belongs to an owner, a ruler, a collective, or a political party, but because it exists as itself” (115). I also enjoyed Foster’s breakdown of 18 things we can tell about a book on the first page. I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ve always had a hard time finding specific strategies in the detail of writing from an author with that being said, Foster helped me improve my analytical annotations in a novel. Now I can look for style, tone, mood, diction, point of view, narrative presence etc…

Part of the reason why I enjoyed reading this book is because of its structure. While discussing elements that are helpful to bear in mind while reading, Foster also includes the supposed reactions of his readers/students. Not only does he make helpful references to older readers Foster also adheres to the youth, me being a part of the youth in this generation I can vouch for this book that it does guide you in a positive direction. This is a book that all readers, not just students, and writers should consider reading. Not only will you learn to read like a professor, but Foster will persuade you to think deeper as you read to discover the MAGIC shall I say, of literature.