"Then it is dark; a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains." - John Cheever

Saturday, January 07, 2006

The Seven Basic Plots

I got this very interesting book for Christmas. A colossal work, which I'm only 100 pages into, but already full of nuggets. The guy has spent the last 30 years consuming the world's literature and films, and distilling ever story from the Odyssey to Star Wars into one a small number of plot structures. I don't buy it all - but some of the links and commonalities he makes are very striking.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Blogs are the way the world learns geography."

-- Samarra Semanczyk (1984-)

Col said...

What's 'anonymous' going on about?

Anyway, the book looks good. Is it worth buying, do you think? Might get it myself.

Tom said...

I don't know if it's worth buying - it's 700 pages and about £15 in paperback. I'll lend it to you after I've finished. It's certainly worth looking at - is packed full of insights.

Col said...

Only £9 on Amazon...

Tom said...

Hmm, it's starting to lose the plot a bit now, with Freudian stuff about unconscious structures in the human mind corresponding to mankind's elemental stories.