HTRLLP

Chapter 1

Every Trip Is a Quest (except when it's not)- "A quest narrative doesn't need to be set in any particular time or place, but it does need to contain five structural elements: 1) a quester 2) a place to go 3) a reason to go there 4) obstacles along the way and 5) the real reason for the quest. The reason to go (3) is different from the real reason for why the quest takes place (5) because the real reason for any quest is to gain self-knowledge."

Chapter 15

Flight of Fancy- "Foster suggests that the "flying African" myth represents the desire for freedom in the midst of captivity." "most characters, like most real people, do not often literally fly through the air. Yet authors allude to themes of flying and freedom in other ways, for example, through the use of bird imagery."

Chapter 22

He's Blind for a Reason, You Know- "As this narrative shows, when an author includes a blind character, this blindness is never simply a fact—it always has symbolic significance." "Foster claims that although only some narratives contain literal blindness, all texts feature metaphoric representations of sight and blindness."

Chapter 18

If She Comes Up, It's Baptism- "However, if a character falls (or otherwise gets drenched) in water before reemerging, this constitutes a kind of rebirth. Not only has the character emerged alive, they are "alive all over again." A symbolic baptism has taken place."

Chapter 26

Is He Serious? And Other Ironies- "Foster begins this chapter with an emphatic claim: "Irony trumps everything," including all that has been described in the book so far." "Irony greatly expands the range of interpretations that can be applied to any symbol. For example, rain—which ordinarily has a fairly predictable set of associated meanings—can take on an entirely different type of significance when employed ironically." "Irony can also work when the reader or audience knows something that a character doesn't, thereby creating multiple layers of (contradictory) meaning around events that take place within the narrative."

Chapter 12

Is That a Symbol?- "Foster says that if you're wondering whether something in a piece of literature is a symbol, it's pretty safe to say that yes, it is." "Readers often assume that only objects can be symbols, but actually, so can actions and events." "Foster advises readers to avoid making definitive statements about symbolic meaning, but also to trust their existing knowledge of literature as well as their instincts when it comes to figuring out what a given part of a text might symbolize. Although readers shouldn't invent meaning out of thin air, the act of reading is nonetheless an active, imaginative exercise, and we shouldn't be afraid to be creative in our experiments with interpretation."

Chapter 8

It's Greek to Me- "Myths have an important place in a culture's collective memory, and can be used to provide a sense of national identity." "Writers often transpose Greek myths into completely new contexts." "new writers were taking the themes of Greek myth—such as the ideal of a hero—and using them in new ways. These themes, rather than being tied to Ancient Greek culture, are thought to be universal."

Chapter 9

It's More Than Just Rain or Snow- "weather is never just weather." "Weather can also be a useful plot device, as it forces characters into acts and situations they might not have willingly chosen themselves."

Chapter 25

It's My Symbol and I'll Cry If I Want To- "Although the secondary layer is obviously important, Foster cautions the reader to never become too dismissive of the primary function of a text, no matter how skilled a reader they become." "How does one approach a text that uses "private symbols"? The only answer Foster gives is simply to try. Use the sources available to you, including your knowledge of preexisting literature." "Even the most complex and unusual works of literature are connected in some way to other texts (as well as to the wider world). For this reason, every text—when given "a little time and imagination"—can be analyzed and decoded."

Chapter 21

Marked for Greatness- "in literature physical attributes do still tend to carry symbolic meaning." "When characters have scars, it gives a sense of their history, and therefore scars can be a way for authors to reveal information about their characters' pasts."

Chapter 11

More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence- "Violence may be interpersonal, but it is almost always related to larger cultural forces. Furthermore, while in real life violence can be meaningless, in literature it often has multiple layers of meaning, whether symbolic, allegorical, religious, political, etc." "Foster identifies two categories of violence in literature: violence that characters enact upon one another, and harmful events that happen to characters in order to advance the plot. "

Chapter 10

Never Stand Next to the Hero- "This is the problem of surrogacy, or the fact that characters close to the hero/main character are likely to be killed because the main character won't be." "While writers etch out an impression of a given character, readers inevitably "shape, or rather reshape, characters in order to make sense of them." This makes us sympathetic to characters and invested in their fate." "It is necessary that it is this proximate person who dies, and not the character himself—otherwise there would be no opportunity for the character to grow."

Chapter 3

Nice To Eat You: Acts of Vampires- "Vampirism is as much about "body shame and unwholesome lust," seduction, temptation, selfishness, and exploitation as it is about actual bloodsucking bat-people." "ghosts and vampires are never only about ghosts and vampires." "yet no matter whether the ghosts are real, their presence in the narrative symbolizes the same themes of madness, neglect, and claustrophobic love."

Chapter 2

Nice To Eat with You: Acts of Communion- "Foster regularly tells his students that anytime characters eat together, this is communion." "communion; the broader definition of the term is anytime people come together to share food and, in doing so, create a temporary community with one another."

Chapter 4

Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?- "The literary critic Northrop Frye claimed that literature always grows out of other literature; in a similar vein, Foster emphasizes that "there is no such thing as a wholly original work literature." "All stories grow out of one another, crossing boundaries of genre as well as time and place."

Chapter 20

So Does Season- "Unlike other symbolic systems, the seasons have tended to signify more or less the same thing over time, creating parallels even between works of literature written many centuries apart." "As well as creating atmosphere, seasonal events such as blizzards, blossoming, and harvest can also be metaphors for events happening in the lives of characters."

Chapter 5

When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare- "Shakespeare is "everywhere, in every literary form you can imagine," although sometimes this can be difficult to see, as many versions of Shakespeare depart drastically from the original." "Foster argues that part of the reason why Shakespeare is so popular is because writers are obsessed with him. Quoting Shakespeare makes you seem smart, though Foster is quick to point out that you don't necessarily have to be familiar with Shakespeare's work in order to quote him."