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 4
... ending in that final moment of death and destruction . No sooner had I ... end up riddled with a hail of bullets . Again and again through the history of ... happy endings ' ? Were there any similar basic patterns underlying these too ...
... ending in that final moment of death and destruction . No sooner had I ... end up riddled with a hail of bullets . Again and again through the history of ... happy endings ' ? Were there any similar basic patterns underlying these too ...
Page 7
... Happy Ending , looks more generally at what all these main story - types have in common . In particular we find that there are not only basic plots to stories but a cast of basic figures who reappear through stories of all kinds , each ...
... Happy Ending , looks more generally at what all these main story - types have in common . In particular we find that there are not only basic plots to stories but a cast of basic figures who reappear through stories of all kinds , each ...
Page 53
... happy ending in Pygmalion , where Eliza finally marries and lives happily ever after ) . We can find the Rags to ... happy endings ' , as being essentially rather simple and sentimen- tal , the stuff of wish - fulfilment rather than ...
... happy ending in Pygmalion , where Eliza finally marries and lives happily ever after ) . We can find the Rags to ... happy endings ' , as being essentially rather simple and sentimen- tal , the stuff of wish - fulfilment rather than ...
Page 56
... happy ending'. The first is that, somewhere along the way, the hero should have met the girl of his dreams, a ... end of a story that they should at last be united, a man and a woman brought together in perfect love. The second is that ...
... happy ending'. The first is that, somewhere along the way, the hero should have met the girl of his dreams, a ... end of a story that they should at last be united, a man and a woman brought together in perfect love. The second is that ...
Page 57
... happy ending), they suddenly hit a new point of crisis, when all hopes of a happy ending seem to have been snatched away forever. For a familiar example, let us go back to that classic English version of the Rags to Riches theme first ...
... happy ending), they suddenly hit a new point of crisis, when all hopes of a happy ending seem to have been snatched away forever. For a familiar example, let us go back to that classic English version of the Rags to Riches theme first ...
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