The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell StoriesThis remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose. Booker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years. This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come. |
From inside the book
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Page vii
... Dark Power: From Shadow into Light .................................................. Epilogue to Part One: The Rule of Three (the role played in stories by numbers) ........ 215 229 PART TWO. : THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING Prologue to Part ...
... Dark Power: From Shadow into Light .................................................. Epilogue to Part One: The Rule of Three (the role played in stories by numbers) ........ 215 229 PART TWO. : THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING Prologue to Part ...
Page 23
... dark power overthrown. Eventually the hero must confront the monster, often armed with some kind of 'magic weapons', and usually in or near its lair, which is likely to be in a cave, a forest, a castle, a lake, the sea, or some other ...
... dark power overthrown. Eventually the hero must confront the monster, often armed with some kind of 'magic weapons', and usually in or near its lair, which is likely to be in a cave, a forest, a castle, a lake, the sea, or some other ...
Page
... power. This monster may take human form (e.g., a giant or a witch); the form of an animal (a wolf, a dragon, a shark); or a combination of both (the Minotaur, the Sphinx). It ... dark power overthrown. Eventually the hero must confront the.
... power. This monster may take human form (e.g., a giant or a witch); the form of an animal (a wolf, a dragon, a shark); or a combination of both (the Minotaur, the Sphinx). It ... dark power overthrown. Eventually the hero must confront the.
Page 48
... power at the outset . Although initially we may see it as little more than a vaguely menacing curiosity , we ... dark power is overthrown . The community which had fallen under its shadow is liberated . And the hero emerges in his full ...
... power at the outset . Although initially we may see it as little more than a vaguely menacing curiosity , we ... dark power is overthrown . The community which had fallen under its shadow is liberated . And the hero emerges in his full ...
Page 49
... dark power is at its greatest and most threatening, followed by the miraculous reversal and release of the ending. If again we take Jack and the Beanstalk as a simple example, we initially feel, as Jack and his mother become poorer and ...
... dark power is at its greatest and most threatening, followed by the miraculous reversal and release of the ending. If again we take Jack and the Beanstalk as a simple example, we initially feel, as Jack and his mother become poorer and ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING | 237 |
MISSING THE MARK | 345 |
WHY WE TELL STORIES | 541 |
The Light and the Shadows on the Wall | 699 |
Authors Personal Note | 703 |
Glossary of Terms | 707 |
Bibliography | 711 |
Index of Stories Cited | 715 |
General Index | 720 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aladdin Amleth anima Anna Karenina archetypal arrives beautiful become begins central figure centre century characters Comedy comes complete consciousness Creon Dark Father dark feminine dark figure dark masculine dark power Dark Rival death developed Don Giovanni Dream Stage egocentric egotism emerge eventually everything familiar fantasy film finally girl goal Hamlet happens happy ending heart hero and heroine hero or heroine human imagination inner James Bond Jane Eyre journey killed king kingdom liberated light lives look Macbeth married Moby Dick mother murder mysterious nature Nightmare Stage novel obsession Odysseus Oedipus ordeals Overcoming the Monster pattern play plot Princess Quest Rags to Riches realise recognise represents role seems seen sense shadow storytelling symbolic symbolised Teiresias tells Theseus thing Tragedy transformation true turn type of story ultimately uncon unconscious values Voyage and Return whole wife Wise Old woman young