All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.
All of them?
Sure, he says. Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.
~The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, page 344
15 comments:
Heh. That reminds me of an offhand comment by someone in my poetry class a few years back: "All poems are love poems."
Since then, I've wanted to write a poem starting with that line, but could never get it right.
Ilan,
Interesting. I don't think that's actually true, however, while I do think this is the most concise, brilliant statement about story-writing. I've been thinking about every book I own and love and they all fit this formula. All stories really are about wolves.
Memory by Lois Bujold is a story about elephants.
Larry,
Elephants that are quite probably wolves in disguise.
Yep. It's all about me. :)
The Wolf
The wolf was a very real and frightening creature in Europe a few hundred years ago.
Theyd come out of the Black Forest in Central Europe and snatch children in the night...
that's the lasting impression you had of this book!?
canadian princess,
Now, did I say that? I love the whole book. But this is the most important quote. And the novel within the novel is more interesting than the overall story. (I know, blasphemy!)
that's because the novel within the novel WAS the story, fool!
I shall take being called Fool as a compliment. See here.
*waggles eyebrows*
Not bad.
Although it seems that the same idea could be put forth using other just as broad terms like fear or love.
g,
I don't think that would work quite as well.
"Being thrown to the fear, or throwing others to the fear so the fear will eat them instead of you. Running with the fear. Turning into a fear. Best of all, turning into the head fear."
That leaves something to be desired.
Much better our metaphorical wolves. :-)
That leaves something to be desired.
Much better our metaphorical wolves. :-)
------
Uhhhh, yeah. Your gonna have to kind of re-work the wording to use a diff. term.
Ah, but you COULD use kiwi.
"Being thrown thrown to the kiwi, or throwing others to the kiwi so the kiwi will eat them instead of you. Running with the kiwi. Turning into a kiwi. Best of all, turning into the head kiwi."
Dude, totally works. HEAD KIWI FTW!
But seriously, though, it could be used for any beast, not just wolves, although I do love stories about wolves :) MY, AUTHOR, WHAT BIG PUPPET STRINGS YOU HAVE. THE BETTER TO PULL YOU WITH! Haha. I crack myself up.
But listen:
"Being thrown thrown to the lions, or throwing others to the lions so the lions will eat them instead of you. Running with the lions. Turning into a lion. Best of all, turning into the head lion."
Any animal, any beast, any creature that can run and eats flesh. Try it with ogre, troll, panther, tiger, snakes, etc.
Wolf is just a another term for a powerfull force, whicj is why I think it can applied to other such ideas.
Post a Comment