A Tutorial on Stories

Tags

Arabian Nights, Big Fish, Doctor Who, Secondhand Lions, stories, Storytellers, the Fall, The Princess Bride, writing

I have planned on making this list for a long time. I always hear about people making their favorite movies or favorite books lists. I have pondered a long time what movies I would recommend to aspiring storytellers. All five have affected how I set up stories and how I view stories.

5. Arabian Nights (ABC/Hallmark mini-series) – I was a young lass when I saw this mini-series. In fact, it was the first mini-series I ever saw. This is a fun way to introduce Arabian Nights to younger children (think PG audience). The series does not follow very closely to the frame story but I really doubt we would like the Sultan if he was a complete and total homicidal maniac. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it is so much fun.

This series is really good if you want to understand how to hook someone into continuing to listen or read to a story.

4. The Fall – (Warning: This is a VERY, VERY dark film and is not at all appropriate for anyone under the age of 17. This is due to the themes and the occasional violence in the film.) This is one of the few R films that I could stomach watching let alone think was a good idea. I just like watching the beautiful filming. Unlike most films, the director had complete control over the project without interference from studio executives. It is the 1920’s in Hollywood and a stuntman is paralyzed from an accidental fall on the set of a movie. He befriends a young girl who broke her arm in a fall while working as a laborer in an orange field. The stuntman begins telling a story to the young girl to keep her entertained. The stuntman  becomes suicidal when he realizes that he will never walk again. He makes the little girl help him get the pills that will help him kill himself by telling her a story that is becoming more and more dark and terrifying as his mind falls apart.

The film is brilliant because it shows how the storyteller and the audience do not have the scaffolding (meaning background knowledge) to understand a story. It is a fantastic way to explain to people who you may try to tell a story one way but they take it as another. It is among the most beautiful films I have ever seen.

3. Secondhand Lions – This film is worth the price of admission simply for having Michael Cane and Robert Duvall in it… talking like my Grandfather. (Yes, that is what a Texan accent sounds like.) Two uncles take care of their nephew for the summer. The uncles are very rich and they could have only gotten their money in two ways: as bank robbers or by adventuring in Africa.

The “Becoming a Man” speech is a great way to describe fiction and storytelling. I loosely paraphrase what my friend told me one of the writers for Doctor Who said at TARDIS-CON. “Of course we lied to you. You expect us to lie. That is why you watch the show. YOU LIKE IT!”

2. Big Fish – Tim Burton directed and is his least appreciated movie. It is about a son who is trying to find out the truth behind his father’s stories before the father dies.

It is about how a man’s stories make him immortal. All writers feel that deep need to be remembered (as do all humans). The movie also shows how one’s stories can grow in the telling and how close truth and fiction really is.

What is shown is a fantastical story about how tall tales and legends are made.

Both my Grandfather (who, sadly, died several years before I was born) and Father told tall tales. “Yes, I walked with Moses. I was there when he parted the Red Sea.” “Yeah, me and Lincoln were best buds.” They were too ridiculous to be true, but I  loved being told those stories. This film is special because of that.

1. The Princess Bride – Yeah, do I really have to explain this movie? What can I say? Oh, yeah, WATCH IT!

I was about five when I first saw this movie. Every time I had a question about the movie, the Grandson asked that exact question I was thinking. It is a hard lesson to learn that “Life isn’t fair” but, the movie shows that you can still fight against it. The movie was perfect in keeping up with audience expectation. If you do not fulfill those expectations, your movie STINKS! (I will not name movies because that would be cruel and start a flame war. ) Also, probably the most quotable movie I have ever seen.

I hope all of you will watch these movies if you are interested in how stories are put together or just want to watch something new.

Until Our Next Meeting,

The Lost Writer of Rohan

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?

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Adam, Adam and Eve, Afraid of the Dark, dark, dark vs. light, Eden, Eve, Fear, God, Humanity, Jesus Christ, light, the Fall

I am watching a documentary called Afraid of the Dark.  It talks about all the different reasons why humanity is afraid of the dark.  I do not believe in evolution so I do not believe it has to deal with that.  Genetic memory?  Possibly.  I have not studied it that much.  Passed down lore from generation to generation?  Most definitely.

However, I think there might be a Biblical connection.  In Genesis, it talks  about how God visited and walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  Due to the way the Fall plays out, I think it was probably in the evening, near twilight.  So, I was wondering, “Maybe Adam and Eve were cast out at night.”  All of the paintings and drawings I have seen of the Casting out of Eden, shows it as a bright afternoon.  I think the closing in of darkness would be more poetic because they are no longer allowed to see God’s Light.  Without God, we are in darkness.  (Thus, people needing to see “the Light”.)  Christ refers to himself as “the Light”.  We are to be “Light unto the World”. 

I think we are scared of the dark because of our inner, unconscious desire for God, and our fear to be without him.

Just a pondering.

Until Our Next Meeting.

The Lost Writer of Rohan.

Nighthawks and Noodles

Tags

Blue Like Jazz, call out, Communion, Donald Miller, Edward Hopper, evil, family, God, human interaction, isolated, Jesus, loneliness, Nighthawks, talk, the Fall, Vietnamese noodle place

I went to a Vietnamese noodle place that recently opened up near my home.  I went there to meet up with my immediate family.  Everything was delicious, filling, and relatively cheap.  That isn’t why I’m writing this blog though. 

As I went home, I realized how isolated my family was from the rest of the restaurant.  We didn’t talk much with the staff or the single woman also in the restaurant.  I noticed how all of us were slumped down during the entire meal and I realized that it felt like Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.  (If you haven’t seen it, click here.  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Nighthawks.jpg)  We may be totally alone, but we do not make the effort to make contact with those around us. 

Why is this?  Because loneliness forces us to become more and more withdrawn in ourselves.  Being alone is not evil.  (Even Jesus needed the occasional people break.)  It is too much loneliness that can kill us.  Babies die without human interaction.  Isolation is considered the worse form of punishment in the world.  In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller talks about a park ranger who had been alone for several months.  He wanted human interaction, but he couldn’t remember how to talk to people.

Why is there loneliness though?  Why would God allow this?  Because he gave us free will.  Before the Fall, we had complete communion with God and others before the fall.  When we disobey God, we are ignoring our relationship with Him and ask to be alone with ourselves.   Afterward we ate the fruit, because we asked for selfishness in our choice to eat the fruit, God gave us what we wanted.  He had to separate Himself from us.  Hell is total separation from God.  We crave company because we crave God.  That’s how one is able to feel alone in a room full of people. 

Jesus brought us back into communion with God.  We just have to move out of our loneliness and call out.

Until Our Next Meeting.

The Lost Writer of Rohan