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
Results 1-5 of 66
Page 2
... significant role in our lives, as novels or plays, films or operas, comic strips or TV 'soaps'. Through newspapers or tele- vision, our news is presented to us in the form of 'stories'. Our history books are largely made up of stories ...
... significant role in our lives, as novels or plays, films or operas, comic strips or TV 'soaps'. Through newspapers or tele- vision, our news is presented to us in the form of 'stories'. Our history books are largely made up of stories ...
Page 6
... significant clues of all as to how stories work and what they are really about. But the further my investigation ... significance, there is literally no story in the world which cannot then be seen in a new light: because we have come to ...
... significant clues of all as to how stories work and what they are really about. But the further my investigation ... significance, there is literally no story in the world which cannot then be seen in a new light: because we have come to ...
Page 7
... significant has happened to storytelling in the western world . Not only do we look here at such an obvious question as why in recent times storytelling should have shown such a marked obsession with sex and violence . As we look at how ...
... significant has happened to storytelling in the western world . Not only do we look here at such an obvious question as why in recent times storytelling should have shown such a marked obsession with sex and violence . As we look at how ...
Page 8
... significant types of story which we have not looked at before . This relates myths about the creation of the world and the ' fall from innocence ' to the evolution of human consciousness and our relations with nature and instinct . In ...
... significant types of story which we have not looked at before . This relates myths about the creation of the world and the ' fall from innocence ' to the evolution of human consciousness and our relations with nature and instinct . In ...
Page 12
... significant in human behaviour we must look into those parts of the psyche of which we cannot be directly aware, because they are below the threshold of our immediate consciousness. But whereas Freud became preoccu- pied with just a ...
... significant in human behaviour we must look into those parts of the psyche of which we cannot be directly aware, because they are below the threshold of our immediate consciousness. But whereas Freud became preoccu- pied with just a ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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