A universal story
Although there are seven basic plots which have been the basis of storytelling for thousands of years (even if there have been some developments in recent years), the plots share many common trait. All the plots can ultimately be summarised as a single universal story, and share many common features such as a tension between light and dark and masculine and feminine, use of archetypal symbols, patterns and personalities, and an overarching theme of self realisation in their narrative structure and elements. Read more »
“The point of a story can penetrate far deeper than the point of any bullet.” - Laurence Nault
Getting to the point
There are seven basic plots in storytelling as we have seen over the last few weeks. These plots form the backbone of myths, fairy tales, novels and movies, and also of advertising, brand stories and how we can all communicate in business, including market researchers telling the story of their data. Here are seven reasons why stories will help you communicate ideas more effectively, helping you to build your story and helping your audience to remember the point of it all. Read more »
Born again
The plot of rebirth is one of the oldest of all, seen in many of the fairy tales that are part of our childhood and mirroring the very act of growing up and being reborn as an adult after years in childhood. Read more »
mask of Dionysus
The unfolding Greek tragedy
As events unfold in Europe this week, there is a sense of inevitably that they will end in further pain and suffering in Greece (and many other countries). I suspect they may only resolve themselves fully when there has been a full catharsis (literally a ‘dramatic cleansing’) for the main characters and countries involved. Read more »
“People ask me, ‘Steve, how do you get so funny?’ I say to them, ‘Before I go onstage I put a fish in each shoe. That way I feel funny.’” - Steve Martin
The funny thing about comedy
Aristotle believed that comedy arose like tragedy from improvisations around specific festivals. Tragedy arose as a prelude to the dithyramb (an ancient Greek hymn in honour of Dionysus), while comedy was originally a prelude to phallic songs and processions which were part of ancient Greek fertility rites. Aristotle would be considered a snob today, and he viewed comedy as a lower form of poetry, dealing with people of lower virtue, who were unimportant, undignified and, to coin a word, ‘laughable’. By contrast, tragedy dealt with stories about serious, important and virtuous people. Unfortunately the second book of his Poetics which was specifically about tragedy has not survived (some medieval texts are believed to be translations of the original). Read more »
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Connecting the dots
Are you drowning in the sea of data yet? As the world becomes more and more complex, with more and more information to understand and less and less time to do this, the importance of integrative thinking becomes more and more important. In The Opposable Mind, Roger Martin presents a number of convincing business case studies, including A.G. Lafley at P&G, Jack Welch at GE, Michael Lee-Chin at AIC and Martha Graham (who revolutionised modern dance) of integrative thinking. The common thread in these examples and others is that all of them demonstrate the ability to see problems from a range of perspectives, think in terms of total systems and not component parts, and simplify complex ideas into straight forward (and often disruptive) solutions to problems. Read more »
Into another world
My favourite film of last year was Inception (you can read about marketing inception here and the psychology of inception here). For those who haven’t seen it yet (and please do if you haven’t), the plot involves the main character played by Leonardo di Caprio entering someone’s dream world with a team of helpers in order to plant an idea in the dreamer’s mind. As with similar ‘Voyage and return’ plots, Leonardo’s character starts the movie with a shadow (his wife’s suicide) hanging over him, restricting his mental world and opening him to the potential of a voyage into the unknown (with the promise of a return to his home). He finally returns home after a strange and dangerous voyage of discovery, a changed man. Read more »
The evolution of colour
We share eyes which can form images with around 95% of animal species, and colour is an important signal in nature for the safety of food, the detection of predators and the identification of sexual readiness (and Mark Changizi argues also for interpreting the emotions and intentions of others). Colour is caused by the reflection of some types of light and the absorption of others, and all our eyes can tell our brains are which wavelengths (or frequencies) of light are present and which are not. From this information our brain creates the colours which we see all around us, but have these colours always been experienced in the same way and had the same meanings? Read more »
“I’m working on a dream
Though sometimes it feels so far away
I’m working on a dream
And how it will be mine someday” - Bruce Springsteen
Working on a dream
The American Dream is deeply embedded in the dreams of many, and for a few lucky people has been played out for real. It is the heart of the national ethos of the United States including the promise of the possibility of wealth and success for all, based on their equality at birth and their inalienable right to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as written into the country’s constitution. This theme comes up in classic American literature of Mark Twain, Hunter S. Thompson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller and many more. It’s even written into the title of Barack Obama’s biography, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. 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 »
