Pastormac’s Ponderings
?
?
Ok, here it is finally! The Seven Themes blog.
Some of you who’ve been involved in the seven themers discussion prior to this will recognize some of the following as being part of a previous email. I include it here, edited and updated for simplicity. I’ve also posted a companion audio blog. The audio blog is more detailed and more contemporary with plenty of examples. It’s also even more rambling, if possible, then this text blog tends to be. It’s in the pondercasts, and it’s called the seven themes ramble.
The plan is to post, each Saturday, a blog on a particular story or movie and how I see the Seven themes. I am interested in your responses and comments. So I will tell you each week what the next week’s story will be, in case you want to view or read the story and think about the seven themes ahead of time. Next week will be a discussion of Les Miserables. I am thinking particularly of the 1998 movie since I’ve just seen it again, but the book is similar enough to also work or probably the 1935 version, though I’ve not seen it.
So without further ado, here’s the theory.
In every story (of whatever medium—poetry, book, movie, play—as long as it’s a story) at least one of seven themes appears (thus the term seven inescapable themes—I don’t mean all of them are inescapable, but only that one cannot avoid using at least one of them.), if it counts as a story at all and not just a narrative of events. The really interesting point is that the more timeless a story is, the more classic and endearing and popular over the long term, the more of these seven themes it has. For example, Shakespeare almost always has all seven. Lord of the Rings contains all seven. Harry Potter even contains at least five. Also these themes can be seen in either pure or corrupted form. I’ll give examples below. What’s interesting is that even in corrupted form they seem to offer some power to the story to move and touch people. So, part of the fun of this theory is that I think it’s a pretty good predictor of success for movies, books, and so on. Not just short term(although it’s pretty good for this too) but long term success. The greater number of these themes there are, the more skillfully integrated into the story itself these themes are, and the more pure the form, the more lasting the movie, or book or whatever tends to be. Even short term success can be connected to these themes in one way or another. A movie can be short term popular and fade out in the long term if it uses lots of corrupted versions of these themes or uses all these themes but poorly worked into the story.
This is a good time to clarify that I am not saying that these themes alone guarantee a good product. The mere presence of these themes does not guarantee quality. One could unskillfully utilize these themes and end up with a loser. In fact, I would point to Moulin rouge (an absolutely horrid musical Oscar Nominee from a few years ago) as a prime example of using all Seven themes extremely poorly. However, I am saying that no matter how skillful one is, if they do not use these themes it will not resonate with people. Great acting, good characterization, well crafted wordsmithing, great directing and so on, will not suffice without these themes to move and stir .
Anyway, as I say it may all be nonsense, but I would challenge you to find any story of lasting value which does not in fact include a number of these themes, and I would challenge you to find any story at all which does not include at least one of these. It also leads to two fun exercises: 1) to identify these themes in anything you watch/read. I find this fun, and it’s what we will do on Seven Themes Saturdays 2) to predict the success of books, movies and so forth. I even use this to gain a pretty good track record of predicting Oscar nominations and wins (although in a backwards sort of way which I can explain another time) and box office success.3) Maybe one of us wil write that great American novel by using all seven themes.
Ok, enough prelim here they are in no particular order:
Anyway, as I say it may all be nonsense, but I would challenge you to find any story of lasting value which does not in fact include a number of these themes, and I would challenge you to find any story at all which does not include at least one of these. It also leads to two fun exercises: 1) to identify these themes in anything you watch/read. I find this fun, and it’s what we will do on Seven Themes Saturdays 2) to predict the success of books, movies and so forth. I even use this to gain a pretty good track record of predicting Oscar nominations and wins (although in a backwards sort of way which I can explain another time) and box office success.3) Maybe one of us wil write that great American novel by using all seven themes.
Ok, enough prelim here they are in no particular order:
1. Substitutionary love—By this I mean the love which is reflected by one person sacrificing and taking the consequences due to another. Substituting themselves for the other person’s pain. Examples:
Harry Potter’s mom did this for Harry Potter. Aslan, of course, in the Narnian chronicles. Sam Gamgee does this for Frodo in Lord of the Rings. Gandalf also does this. Frodo does. Strider does. In fact, it occurs over and over in the Lord of the Rings. The famous scene in Tale of Two cities with the guy whose name escapes me at the moment “tis a far far better things I’ve done...” Little Mermaid with dad doing it for Ariel and on and on. Obviously there are a ton in classic literature (as you will find for most of these.) Any of the thousand movies were the heroine or hero jump in front of their loved one, taking the bullet or sword or what have you. I will point out this doesn’t always end in death. It can be substitionary love and appear in lots of other forms. A buddy taking the blame for something his friend did in a highschool buddy flick, an innocent man taking the rap for the guilty in a prison show and so on
2. Christ figure: This is the term the literary world uses to describe a certain kind of figure in a book. I didn’t make this term up but I use it here because it is one of the themes I see. This figure always has some special power or quality which makes him uniquely suited to save the world. Harry Potter is obviously one. Superman is a classic one, as is any superhero. (By the way, Superhero stories inevitably contain four or more of these themes, often all seven, which is part of the reason for the enduring legacy.) Other less obvious superheros nonetheless contain this kind of specialness. Forest Gump, Indiana Jones, James Bond, even Romeo and Juliet as a unit contain this and theme number one—their love is the special quality, their death is the sacrifice which saves the families by bringing them together., Billy Budd in Mellviles story by the same name. Again the examples are abundant.
3. The fellowship concept: This is the idea of a number of people who, only by working together, are the Christ figure as a unit. Each of the members of the team contain special gifts which when put together make them successful. Hollywood has stumbled upon this as a successful formula for movies in everything form the dirty dozen to the Incredibles to the Bad News Bears. Of course it’s formula form is not always skillfully integrated into the story but only thrown in as a formula. Of course, there are much more skilled examples, such as of course, the Lord of the Rings which has this theme heavily, as does Harry Potter (He’s not alone after all and is often benefitted by the skill and brains of Hermione and the wisdom of Dumbledore and so on.) Even books with a distinct Christ figure like Frodo or Harry Potter will still utilize the fellowship theme.
4. resurrection: This is pretty self explanatory, meaning that the hero (usually the Christ figure, but not always) dies, or appears to die, and then returns to life at the pivotal moment. Usually this is only a resurrection in appearance but in our day of “realistic” stories, it suffices for the theme. This theme reaches back to myth’s like the Pheonix, and is very frequent in hollywood. Both Luke and Han Solo undergo a resurrection of sorts in the star wars series. (Actually so does c3Po). Superman does this frequently. Appears dead, and then comes up out of the ground or from under the rubble or out of the sea. Interestingly Superman’s resurrection is almost always accompanied by an ascension, but superman is in a class by himself which I commented on in an earlier blog and which is extremely apparent in the newest Superman movie. I’m sure you can think of many other examples—Gandalf is a classic example, and of course Aslan. Sherlock Holmes does it in the books by Doyle. I’m trying to remember if Batman did it in the recent incarnation—I think he did. Indiana Jones does it twice. Even happens in Romeo and Juliet, only too late to prevent both their deaths, and on and on. If you allow for appearance and metaphor, this happens all the time. Sometimes the resurrection may only be in power or involvement, and not in life, but even then you have a watered down corrupted version of the same idea. Interestingly Horror movies routinely (almost without exception in fact) take this theme and turn it on its head so that the evil villain resurrects at the end of the movie. It’s so predictable you can count on the villain coming back to life after the credits or at least two or three times before the credits if he does eventually die. It’s not an irrelevant point that in Horror movies, the good stay dead and the evil won’t die. A peversion of a great theme, which borrows some short term power from the resonation that the idea of resurrection has for us. By the way, you’ll note that in Horror movies, where the villain or monster is really the main point (not the hero), you have a peversion of several of these themes—Christ figure—special powers used to destroy rather than save the world, Fellowship—sometimes a team of monsters or villains working together. Occasionally a team of heroes who only together can match the powers of the villain. And even the idea of substitutionary love is often peverted in various odd ways.
3. The fellowship concept: This is the idea of a number of people who, only by working together, are the Christ figure as a unit. Each of the members of the team contain special gifts which when put together make them successful. Hollywood has stumbled upon this as a successful formula for movies in everything form the dirty dozen to the Incredibles to the Bad News Bears. Of course it’s formula form is not always skillfully integrated into the story but only thrown in as a formula. Of course, there are much more skilled examples, such as of course, the Lord of the Rings which has this theme heavily, as does Harry Potter (He’s not alone after all and is often benefitted by the skill and brains of Hermione and the wisdom of Dumbledore and so on.) Even books with a distinct Christ figure like Frodo or Harry Potter will still utilize the fellowship theme.
4. resurrection: This is pretty self explanatory, meaning that the hero (usually the Christ figure, but not always) dies, or appears to die, and then returns to life at the pivotal moment. Usually this is only a resurrection in appearance but in our day of “realistic” stories, it suffices for the theme. This theme reaches back to myth’s like the Pheonix, and is very frequent in hollywood. Both Luke and Han Solo undergo a resurrection of sorts in the star wars series. (Actually so does c3Po). Superman does this frequently. Appears dead, and then comes up out of the ground or from under the rubble or out of the sea. Interestingly Superman’s resurrection is almost always accompanied by an ascension, but superman is in a class by himself which I commented on in an earlier blog and which is extremely apparent in the newest Superman movie. I’m sure you can think of many other examples—Gandalf is a classic example, and of course Aslan. Sherlock Holmes does it in the books by Doyle. I’m trying to remember if Batman did it in the recent incarnation—I think he did. Indiana Jones does it twice. Even happens in Romeo and Juliet, only too late to prevent both their deaths, and on and on. If you allow for appearance and metaphor, this happens all the time. Sometimes the resurrection may only be in power or involvement, and not in life, but even then you have a watered down corrupted version of the same idea. Interestingly Horror movies routinely (almost without exception in fact) take this theme and turn it on its head so that the evil villain resurrects at the end of the movie. It’s so predictable you can count on the villain coming back to life after the credits or at least two or three times before the credits if he does eventually die. It’s not an irrelevant point that in Horror movies, the good stay dead and the evil won’t die. A peversion of a great theme, which borrows some short term power from the resonation that the idea of resurrection has for us. By the way, you’ll note that in Horror movies, where the villain or monster is really the main point (not the hero), you have a peversion of several of these themes—Christ figure—special powers used to destroy rather than save the world, Fellowship—sometimes a team of monsters or villains working together. Occasionally a team of heroes who only together can match the powers of the villain. And even the idea of substitutionary love is often peverted in various odd ways.
Justice: At its simplest this theme is the idea of wrongs being righted. Often it means punishment coming to the guilty and/or vindication coming to the innocent. It’s basically the right consequences befalling the right people. Most often (but not always) it involves the correction of previously mismatched consequences. In other words, a wronged innocent is vindicated and the previously carefree guilty perpatrator is judged guilty. Interestingly the vehicle for this justice is often through one of the four previous themes—i.e. Someone’s sacrifice brings vindication to the innocent or The special Christ figure (or team) is involved in bringing this justice, and often the resurrection (usually metaphorical) is needed for justice to occur, in that the wrong consequence of death of the innocent and survival of the evil is corrected by the return of the innocent and his subsequent judgment of the evil. The entire Batman legend is of course grounded in this idea. Batman is a creation of the need for justice. His parents, ideally perfect and generous in almost every version of the legend, are killed by someone on the other end of the moral spectrum. Batman is not fighting evil merely for it’s sake, but as a way of bringing the right consequences to those who deserve them, and preventing the wrong consequences for any more innocents. IN most versions, including the latest, Gotham is the epitome of corruption and injustice, until Batman begins to bring justice to bear. This idea of justice is in fact the origin of most superheroes (Spiderman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Superman and so on.) A corrupted version of Justice is probably the strongest of the seven themes Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is genuinely of the opinion that what she is pushing Macbeth to do is bring Justice to bear. He is just too weak to argue, although he knows better. Interestingly the whole genre of tragic drama thrives on the vengance idea, which is essentially an impure form of the justice theme. Since no humans are actually innocent, it is only in fantasy, superhero and sci fi that such heroes usually actually are innocent, and therefore any other version of this theme tends to teeter on the line between justice and vengance. Hamlet is about Justice/vengance. So is King Lear, in at least parts. So is Othello of course and so on. I found it interesting and very encouraging that this latest Batman story took great pains to make the difference between Vengance and Justice. It was a little vague, because again Bruce Wayne is not innocent in the purest terms, but none the less the distinction was made, which is often lost.
Redemption: Simply this is the change of a character from bad to better, or even from good to better. This redemption most often comes through suffering of one kind or another, often involves the turning away from particular weakness or temptation at a crucial moment, and interestingly is often thematically represented through some kind of baptism or immersion in rain, river or water. It is not uncommon for redemption to be a result of a substitionary love (essentially someone else suffers for the redeemed character.), or part of a resurrection theme as well. Frequently a group of people are redeemed by their fellowship. Redemption often involves the vindication of an innocent character, or even the voluntary suffering of a guilty character to become innocent by bringing justice upon themselves.
Redemption: Simply this is the change of a character from bad to better, or even from good to better. This redemption most often comes through suffering of one kind or another, often involves the turning away from particular weakness or temptation at a crucial moment, and interestingly is often thematically represented through some kind of baptism or immersion in rain, river or water. It is not uncommon for redemption to be a result of a substitionary love (essentially someone else suffers for the redeemed character.), or part of a resurrection theme as well. Frequently a group of people are redeemed by their fellowship. Redemption often involves the vindication of an innocent character, or even the voluntary suffering of a guilty character to become innocent by bringing justice upon themselves.
Two great examples—Les Miserables and Shawshank Redemption. Have you seen the scene in Shawshank where the main character (A christ figure, by the way, pursuing vindication for his innocence, trying to right the wrong consequences who resurrects by escaping the death of the prison.) Anyway, have you seen the great scene where he escapes only through the worst kind of muck and sewage, only to arrive outside the prison in the midst of rain where he stands and is cleansed by the rain. Classic redemption through suffering. Another favorite example of mine is Tale of two cities, where (and I never remember names—you’ll have to forgive me.) a fairly unpleasant character ends the book by laying down his life for the innocent prisoner. In this very powerful final scene of the book dickens reveals all six themes which we’ve so far discussed. Do you see them?
Finally is the theme of Alternate worlds.
Finally is the theme of Alternate worlds.
This is interesting because once you start looking for it, it appears in a lot of stories you wouldn’t expect. The classic example is Fantasy books like Harry Potter or Narnia, where the characters literally travel between alternate realities. Fantasy makes a lot of this of course, but it also happens in less fanciful stories. In fact, in many “realistic” stories the idea of a main character who travels between different worlds is more often present than not. Hamlet, travels between the ghost world and the real world. Lear between madness and sanity. Batman between the batcave and the Gotham world. In romances, the hero and heroine travel from a mundane plastic world to one where they feel more strongly, see more vividly and so on. In the aforementioned Shawshank you have the prison world and the outside world. In the Matrix, you have of course the real world and the computer generated illusion. And on and on. The point is there is our world and then there is a better, more exciting, more vivid, more colorful world where the hero either manages to get or wants to get. Sometimes he stays, sometimes he only visits briefly, sometimes he travels back and forth. It is usually the christ figure who can uniquely travel freely between the two world. Occasionally His Fellowship can travel also, but rarely anyone else.
Ok, that’s the seven themes. comments? Am I all wet? Any stories, books, movies, histories, where you see these themes play out? Next week we’ll discuss Les Miserables specifically, so rent it if you’ve not seen it. I’ll present a few new ideas about these themes next week and then open up the comments for discussion. But don’t hesitate to comment with your thoughts now! It will help me know what to clarify or not next week also. And don’t forget the audio blog, The Seven Themes Ramble.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Seven Themes Saturday
