02 March 2009

the heart of the matter

Tolstoy once said that there are only two stories in literature: Person goes on a quest or Stranger comes to town.

I've been wondering if every genre can be reduced to two messages. For example, it seems that the love letter has only one of two messages: Be mine or We're not done. Likewise, it seems that every blog post, status update or tweet has only one of two messages: Look at me or Thinking of you.

2 comments:

Dave said...

ack. you've got to kill that little decartes homunculus running around inside your head.

Michael LeVan said...

Haha! I love that little homunculus!