The thing About Freud

There's this interesting little thing about Sigmund Freud when it comes to AP courses. He seems to sneak his way into every single one of them. He's the basis of most psychological greats in the AP Psyche course. He's the reason everything connects to sex in lit. He developed theories that help us understand why the poletics of our gov class run the way they do. As in music, where everything is either Pacabelle or John Philip Souza, in the world of AP, everything is Shakespear, the Bible, of Freud. But why is he everywhere. What in our culture is so enamored with him that his ideas continually pop up. Actually, the answer may lie in the whole "all stories are connected" thing. We love Freud because he put what we already see in society into words. Society came first and Freud just analyzed it. So the reason Freud turns up is because he already permeated society so much in the first place, only we didn't know it was him yet. What does this mean for literature? This gives us yet another vantage point to look at what we read. Where is that from? It sounds a little like Freud!

Is It REALY a Cigar

It was astutely noted in "How To Read" that Sigmund Freud once told a patient that "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." But given what I know both about literature and psychology, everything can have a meaning or a purpose, even if it's not what the author intended. We subconsciously draw lines and parallels to everything we read- the hero's journey, the fall from grace, a setting or character from another story, so even if the author in unaware of the connections, they have still been influenced by The things they have read and heard, drawing parallels just by that influence. Therefore, we, as readers should find those parallels as well. The meaning of what a writer says is not only up to the writer, but also how the reader interprets it. A cigar may be just a cigar to the author, but to the reader, it could have o whole host of meanings.

Why is The Bard Everywhere

Shakespear- it's all Shakespear. Why do writers go back to the bard so often? What is it abut his works that are so relatable. Well, for one, he had so many. If you can't find a relatable situation in the Shakespearian play you're reading, there are dosens of remaining plays to go through. The sheer volume of work that Shakespear did means that no matter how much you use it, there will always be a reference you haven't made. Secondly, he wrote about people. There may be witches and faires, but the problems faced by his characters are very human and deal with jealousy, fear, hate, anger, and love, some of the most raw human states. If your character needs to appear indecisive or worked up, reference Hamlet. If they need to be fooled into a self destructive action, draw a parallel with Othello. If a character is dealing with harsh and opressive social environments, look no further than the "star-crossed lovers." And as an added bonus to why we all love Shakespear, he's already everywhere. People know him and understand references to him, regardless of whether they've read his work. He is a universal watering hole for ideas.

The Importance and Reoccurrence of a Quest

Being a lover of adventure novels and fiction, I am aware and comfortable with the archetypes and elements of a quest. The hero and his journey, his ultimate goal and the obstacles he must face, the vilan and his relentless quest to deter the hero. All of these are familiar concepts, but I found it so fascinating how often they reoccur in stories outside of the usual quest- genre. The real purpose of the quest is not for the physical prize- it's for the character's personal growth.  A good example would be Shrek- he wants to be left alone so he goes on a quest to regain his privacy. Along the way he discovers that life is a lot better when you're not alone. The journey is for self-improvement, not a material goal.

Unfinished Masterpieces

When a reader encounters ambiguity in a text, there is a tendency to dismiss it as a mistake or lack of foresight. One assumes an idea or plot point was not addressed because it was not important. The reader must instead do the more difficult, yet more fulfilling, task: sit down and take the time to fully understand the implications of the author not explaining that point. Sometimes an unanswered question or unfinished sentence can be much more profound than a painstakingly explained idea.

I am reminded of a story that ran on NPR a few days ago entitled, You Gonna Finish That? What We Can Learn From Artworks In Progress. The piece reminds us that artists can, and will, express themselves through the absence of paint, pencil mark, or color, leaving their audience to ponder upon the glimmering essence of the piece, stripped of all frivolity.

In this way, the artist seems to say, "This is as far as I'm willing to take you, you'll have to find your way from here." The viewer feels abandoned, shortchanged, or perhaps even conned at first, but soon they see that the piece is, in fact, finished. It says all it was meant to say; it reveals what the artist felt, and for that reason, it is finished in every way that matters.

The artist used this ambiguity in the same way a writer might, in order to force the viewer into filling in the blanks and understanding the piece in their own way.

Ambiguity

When an author leaves details unknown or does not specify a part in a story, it leaves the reader guessing and using their imagination to figure out what is happening or what a scene looks like. Ambiguity lets the audience pick and choose parts of the book, creating the imagines in their heads as they read along. By giving the audience the opportunity to create characters and how the book may play out, it lets them enjoy the book and continues to keep them interested and invested.

In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak gives the audience to take a chance as use the power of imagination to create the image of the town and what the characters look like. Zusak gives a sufficient amount of detail and describes the characters enough to provide an image of them, but lets the reader’s imagination create the rest. Zusak keeps the readers on their feet the whole time, leaving questions unanswered, character relationships hidden, and giving the reader leeway to create what the characters looked like and their personality.

Leaving room for the reader to imagine the text in the way they want is how ambiguity works with literature. The author gets to write the book and imagine the book the way they want to and lets the audience imagine it the same or differently. By letting the reader imagine, is gives them a better appreciation of the book and how an author is able to give the reader control of the text too.

Connecting Stories

When I was a freshman, I was told that there was no new idea possible and that any idea thought of is connected to an already existing thought. As Foster stated, all stories have a connection to another one, making parts of the story already existing. With this, Foster means that parts of a story can relate back to an already existing story, such as the plot of Grease and High School Musical. In both stories the audience sees that the two main characters have a summer fling at the very beginning that ends when the two have to go back to school. The female lead shows up to the male leads school as a transfer student and they still show those feelings for each other. However, peer pressure forces them to not get back together immediately, and then they sing and dance to show their angst and the love they share for the other character. At the very end, they end up together and everything is well. This is a prime example that stories and plots become recycled over time and that no ideas are original.

By realizing that most stories correlate, the readers are able to possible figure out future actions in the book or get a better understanding of what plot the book is based around. By Foster explaining this in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, he lets his audience know that there is always more meaning to the story and there is more than one version to the story than what the reader thinks.