Three Plots

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A colleague who fancies himself as a writer reckons that there are "only three plots". That can't be right surely?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:10 (twenty-three years ago)

If so, what are they?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Apparently so - all narratives can be traced back to just a handful of unique mythic structures. At least that's what they try to tell you in (some) screenwriting classes. Aristotle to thread!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:12 (twenty-three years ago)

hmmm, can it be defined like this?

a good or indifferent situation is threatened by something but the threat is averted for whatever reason (including surprise twist) and the original situation is restored (happy ending)...the simpler version of this is a bad situation is successfully changed to a good one (e.g. James Bond) albeit with some minor consequences/repurcussions

a situation is threatened and successfully ruined, leaving things supposedly forever awry or unresolved (e.g. the ending of Casablanca perhaps).

the original situation is replaced by a new situation that is neither better or worse than the original (e.g. Pulp Fiction??)

better examples needed perhaps

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:29 (twenty-three years ago)

props to propp

i. [boy or girl] meets [BoG]/[BoG] loses [BoG]/[BoG] finds [BoG] again
ii. [BoG] meets [BoG]/[BoG] loses [BoG]/[BoG] stays lost
iii. robot meets dragon/FITE!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I alone in totally distrusting use of the word "mythic" in any sense other than discussing mythology?

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:30 (twenty-three years ago)

What about in response to 70's hard rock? That's a suitable arena for that particular word. Wasn't it first coined by John Bonham?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, mark s summed up my long-winded attempt better...and dont you just love the way the robot/dragon battle in Pulp Fiction is deployed as a Marxist dialect juxtaposed with Zen ideology?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

As a creative writing student, we are taught to believe that there are only two plots: someone goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town. Which is all well and good, but unfortunately, the theatre of the absurd really fucks this theory up.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:46 (twenty-three years ago)

This site has definitions of 3, 7, 20 or 36 plots depending on how far you want to reduce a basic plot.

― robster (robster), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:48 (twenty-three years ago)

There's at least 48 plots - in our local allotment.

Life doesn't have a plot, why should art?

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:43 (twenty-three years ago)

would it be fair to say the two most popular/used essemtial plot schemes are basically:

1. boy meets girl / loses girl / finds girl again

and

2. david v goliath

so clearly a story about a small young boy who romances a big mean giant before having their relationship tested by SECOND big mean giant before realising they still love each other and always did would be the most popular story ever told?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

stevem -- that is star wars.

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

dead guy gets dumped in freezer, oh no! scooby doo-esque gang investigate, incorporte dark night of soul. Turns out everyone is robots.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:47 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s's iii has just described my entire approach to choosing videos.

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:54 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.matazone.co.uk/little_goth_girl_and_the_robot.html

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

where does Aeon Flux fit in?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 20 January 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

v. common plot: 1 or 2 ppl go round gathering up a group of ppl in order to carry out some specific task. "Ocean's Eleven", "Blues Brothers", "Battle Beyond the Stars" are all modern examples, but what was the first? Going further back we have Robin Hood and before him Jesus, but can anyone think of more ancient examples?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 20 January 2003 17:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the argonauts?

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 20 January 2003 17:02 (twenty-three years ago)

ooh i lovewd that story abt the guy whose buds are all called runwell, eatwell, shootwell etc etc

my favourite was "hardy hardback" cz he had a hard back (he threw himself at this spiky thing and bounced all round the room!!)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 20 January 2003 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

last mentioned on Least favourite fairy tale

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 20 January 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

before him Jesus, but can anyone think of more ancient examples?

Moses?

neantherdals teaming up to oust a bad-ass mammoth that keeps stealing their vegetables?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 20 January 2003 18:40 (twenty-three years ago)

According to an excellent rhetoric course I took, revenge determines the plot of all fiction and myth.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 20 January 2003 18:48 (twenty-three years ago)

So what about Richard Linklater's Slacker? Eh?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 20 January 2003 19:03 (twenty-three years ago)

'the Head of Brass' !

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 13:06 (twenty-three years ago)

That's a flotaing narrative, nickalicious. Or is it "parallelism"?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 21 January 2003 13:25 (twenty-three years ago)

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