Over seven (and more) coming articles we will explore the basic plots outlined in Christopher Booker’s classic book. The first of these is “Overcoming the monster”.
Dragons and ogres
Every culture has it’s stories of overcoming the monster, such as the English myth of George and the Dragon (perhaps the dragon is usually more fearsome than the one in the picture above). In The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker discusses many examples of this plot including the original story of all which is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Overcoming the monster is the basic plot for Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk and other childhood fairy tales, Greek legends such as many episodes from Homer’s poems and of course Perseus and Theseus, as well as Beowulf (based on an old English poem), Dracula and The War of the Worlds as well as the films High Noon, Jurassic Park, The Magnificent Seven and The Three Musketeers (to name a few). Read more »
“God created man in order to tell stories.” – Hasidic saying, quoted by Franz Kafka
Where did stories start?
In The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker charts the history of stories and where he believes that they have gone wrong in the last 200 years, after outlining seven archetypal plots in detail with a rich array of examples. It’s a long and fantastic read, despite some flaws, which will enrich anyone interested in stories in any form (for example, there are many movie examples). Read more »
The evolution of emotions
Although some key emotions can be clearly seen on our faces (read more here), our emotional lives are complex and intricately bound into the behavioural strategies we have evolved over thousands (perhaps millions) of years to improve our chances of survival and success. Each emotion tells a story about our immediate goals, our perception of the context we find ourselves in, and our interpretation of the events in our lives. Read more »
A new mindset for research
Advances in neuroscience, psychology and related fields such as behavioral economics have changed our understanding of our minds over the last 10-20 years. Over the next 12 articles, I would like to build a complete picture of what makes us what we are, and what this means for marketing and market research, incorporating the latest understanding from these fields. The material is taken from a two-day training workshop, and if you want to learn more about these ideas, then please join us here. Read more »
Many people today still believe in ghosts. Some people also believe that the mind, and even a soul, exists separately from the brain. The ‘social sciences’ and humanities often still hold that people are born as ‘blank slates’ ready to be molded by society. They cling to romantic notions of the “noble savage”, primitive hunter gatherer societies unfettered by violence or sexism. The truth is that science has over the last ten to twenty years shown much of this to be “poppycock” (senseless nonsense).
Read more »
