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| Edna O'Brien |
"'Tolstoy says there are only two great stories in the world.' I said, 'What are they?' He said, 'A man goes on a journey, like Hamlet -- a man on a personal, philosophical quest.' And 'A stranger comes to town,' like, for instance, The Playboy of the Western World [the classic Irish play by J.M. Synge]."
-- Edna O'Brien, author of The Little Red Chairs
The quote above was taken from the July/August 2016 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. In it is an interview with Irish author and playwrite Edna O'Brien. The above statement she says was told to her by a film director and it got me thinking, is it possible that all the great stories can be filed away as either "Man/Woman/Group on a mission" or "Man/Woman/Group arrives from the outside"? It certainly is an even more compact model than the Six Emotional Arcs as analyzed recently at the University of Vermont.
Both of the types that O'Brien mentions can also implement one of the six arcs but the six arcs aren't very interesting to list out (Rise-Fall, Rise-Fall-Rise, Steady Decline, yawn). Looking back on one's favorite movies or novels and deciding whether its a Man on a Mission or Stranger Comes to Town story is more intriguing.
Are there exceptions to these two motifs?
Both of the types that O'Brien mentions can also implement one of the six arcs but the six arcs aren't very interesting to list out (Rise-Fall, Rise-Fall-Rise, Steady Decline, yawn). Looking back on one's favorite movies or novels and deciding whether its a Man on a Mission or Stranger Comes to Town story is more intriguing.
Are there exceptions to these two motifs?
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