I Love That Word, Ponder

----"The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts."- Oliver Wendell Holmes.
----I once read in a writer's manual that theme is very rarely stated implicitly, except in fables. You have to think, and reread, and ponder, (I love that word, ponder) to divine the meaning, and even then, it isn't a sharp clean sentence with capitals and punctuation. The meaning of a story is an idea, and a feeling associated with it, like Crime-anger. The "angry" tag accompanying the image of a burglar can be taken several different ways: is the criminal angry? Is the victim angry? Are the passersby angry? Theme, and the meaning of a book, are often vague, cloudy images with feeling tags like you get when awaking from a fast-fading dream. This goes with the quote because the contained thoughts are usually semipermanent, but the implied things which you have to think about are forever. I can't remember any names or even the plot of Fahrenheit 451, but I can still wrap myself in the terror and clear messages which are intensified by passing through the mind. After an idea goes through your own mind, translates into your vernacular, and becomes relevant to you, it's so much more potent that a series of smeary small print.
----This quote is relevant to Les Miserables because honestly, some of the things that happen are totally irrelevant to my life. I will never do time in a French prison for stealing a loaf of bread (knock on wood), and I won't escape into a secluded convent to care for a little girl. But the themes are the same. What the righteous priest told Valjean about redemption and second chances is absolutely, one hundred percent useful to 21st century teens. The sacrifices Valjean made to care for Cosette and Fantine are examples to any father or parent today. It doesn't matter what the characters did or where they went, it matters why. These people we are allowed to see transparently are test cases and experiments for us; they show us why we do what we do and what happens if we do so.