We Only Have One Story

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is. — Steinbeck, East of Eden

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us …. Humans are caught — in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too — in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill? — Steinbeck, still East of Eden

I’ve never read East of Eden, by the way. Here’s a review. Here’s another. Oh, look, the ebook is $0.99 at Amazon. FINE, TWIST MY ARM.

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Here it is: there’s only one story. There, I said it and I can’t very well take it back. There is only one story. Ever. One. It’s always been going on and it’s everywhere around us and every story you’ve ever read or heard or watched is part of it. –– Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Honestly, I’m not at all sure I want to read literature like a professor. The description at Amazon is:

While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor. What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun.

The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea.

I’ve heard of several of those, though I’ve only read Station Eleven and Neverwhere. Interesting choices — possibly good choices — but I always want to say, You know what, sometimes the road is just dusty because it’s the author remembers she’s already established that this is a dry climate. Sometimes it’s raining because the author remembered offhandedly that the weather isn’t always bright and sunny, so today it’s raining Sometimes one character hands another a cup of ale because movement tags are more graceful than always using ‘he said’.

A lot of details do establish mood and tone, I wouldn’t argue otherwise, but it’s just silly to think everything has a deeper meaning or that there are generally hidden truths in someone handing somebody else a cup of water, and that’s why I’m rather suspicious of this whole concept of reading like a lit professor.

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“There are thirty-two ways to write a story and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot – things are not as they seem.”

This is attributed to someone named Jim Thompson, but with no indication I can find regarding who Jim Thompson is or where or when he said or wrote this. I mean, “That I can find in 30 seconds of googling around.” I’m sure it’s possible to track down this person and this quote, but I’m not gonig to bother, I’m just going to point to this post, where I saw the quote.

The quote above by Jim Thompson kicks off a detailed survey of modern storytelling in books and movies. David Bordwell, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, seemingly has seen a thousand movies and still found time to read a couple thousand books. Perplexing Plots takes a roughly chronological approach at the beginning to describe the field of interest Bordwell wants to concentrate on: plot.

Perplexing Plots is this book. From the description:

In Perplexing Plots, David Bordwell reveals how crime fiction, plays, and films made unconventional narrative mainstream. He shows that since the nineteenth century, detective stories and suspense thrillers have allowed ambitious storytellers to experiment with narrative. Tales of crime and mystery became a training ground where audiences learned to appreciate artifice. These genres demand a sophisticated awareness of storytelling conventions: they play games with narrative form and toy with audience expectations. Bordwell examines how writers and directors have pushed, pulled, and collaborated with their audiences to change popular storytelling. 

This sounds like a fun book.

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“There are only two plots in all of literature: 1) A person goes on a journey. 2) A stranger comes to town.”

Here’s a post that discusses the possible origin of the above quote. There are many interesting variations, which have been attributed to John Gardner, among others.

The QI website has a separate article about the following related saying: There are only four stories: The siege of the city, the return home, the quest, and the sacrifice of a god.

The … sacrifice of a god? Is one of only four possible stories? Actually, I don’t get “siege of a city” here either. Or, for that matter, “the return home.” From the linked article:

In 1972 Jorge Luis Borges published a collection titled “El Oro de los Tigres” (“The Gold of the Tigers”). Most of the pieces were poems, but one piece was an essay titled “Los Cuatro Ciclos” (“The Four Cycles”) which described four fundamental stories that have been told and retold throughout the history of humankind. …

Click through to read the whole thing, but the post isn’t about the four plots; it’s about the quote. I think it might be fun to create a Venn diagram with the “only two stories” and “only four stories” circles and try assigning actual books to the diagram and see what happens. Maybe I’ll try that and just see how it goes.