Annalise's story

I'm Annalise. I'm a junior majoring in English and, unlike Ben, I've opted to drop my flea studies major because I was never any good at making them do anything of interest. Though I'm still holding out hope on joining a real circus some day.

I spend almost all of my time either listening to or playing music. The same question often comes up in that arena: are there new songs? If I think about it too much, about whether there are new stories or new arias, I suppose it can make me disconcerted or upset. That being said, I always return to the firmly held belief that when talking about a specific story, it isn't really helpful to ask if it's been done before. When I'm reading or writing, a story takes hold of my mind, captivating me to the point that I don't have time to ask if the story has been told before. I often enjoy wondering how a story would be different if told in an earlier time period. I believe there are some stories that can only be told in a certain way because of the time period the author chose. Orison of Sonmi from Cloud Atlas, for example, is essentially a story of awakening identity and betrayal. 

So no. I don't believe there are any new stories, but that isn't the point. There are infinite ways of telling the same stories, and that is beautiful and should be cherished. 

Here is a quote from the play Arcadia that I love and kind of makes me want to cry: "We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language."