tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post4756893236066906952..comments2024-02-05T10:41:31.777-05:00Comments on I Saw Lightning Fall: Messinger on Least-Favorite PlotsLoren Eatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-21549541954244955622010-02-14T11:57:43.524-05:002010-02-14T11:57:43.524-05:00The monomyth may be a good way to describe what yo...The <a href="http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/fryemono.htm" rel="nofollow">monomyth</a> may be a good way to describe what you're saying about change. A person can fall from a high to low state <i>because</i> his personal character doesn't change; that's still a certain sort of change, I guess.<br /><br />I agree with you about Zelazny's inversion of plots. They just have to be fully realized, more than a clever idea. Did you listen to <a href="http://podcastle.org/2010/01/26/podcastle-88-another-end-of-the-empire/" rel="nofollow">"Another End of the Empire"</a> on PodCastle a couple weeks ago? The short nailed the balance.<br /><br />For the record, I hate criticizing Neil Gaiman because he's so much more talented than I'll even be. But I really disliked "HTTTGAP" (to get all acronym-y).Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-64880260658761590712010-02-12T22:55:08.064-05:002010-02-12T22:55:08.064-05:00I dunno. To haul out Zelazny again, he wrote once...I dunno. To haul out Zelazny again, he wrote once about the Three Basic Plots - Boy Meets Girl, The Little Tailor, and A Man Learns a Lesson - and how inverting them - Boy Fails to Get the Girl, The Odds Overcome the Hero, and A Man Fails to Learn a Lesson - can also create an effect. To whit, I don't know that the characters need to change per se so much as the change needs to be visible and visibly lost. I think Gaiman's story wasn't the best example, because it outlines what a successful attempt would have looked like, even if the actual characters fail to achieve it.<br /><br />The Via Negativa you mentioned a while back can apply elsewhere; sometimes, nothing can happen in a very particular way.Scattercathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00302815654553659644noreply@blogger.com