Take a photo of a barcode or cover
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
If you're up for a thought-provoking, quick read, I recommend dipping your toes in Aristotle's work. He is so precise and simple with his ideas, and it's so interesting to read someone who articulated thoughts hundreds of years ago that are still applicable today.
Aristotle engages in literary theory approximately 2500 years ago. He discusses the merits of Homer who lived about 350 years before he did. This is kind of like us discussing the merits of Shakespeare. The difference is that Homer was prehistoric. Homer words only survived through word of mouth. I find that fascinating that when Aristotle is looking back on Homer’s time he is squinting into a fairly recent past that is beyond the ken of written history. I sometimes wonder what it must have felt like to be on the leading edge, temporally speaking, of civilization in this way.
Anyway. Aristotle says there are six important parts of tragedy in order of importance: plot, character, reason, diction, music, and spectacle (meaning the visual display of a performance, not sensational visuals). It’s all about the plot: characters to move the plot,“necessary and probable” reasons for actions taking place, and eloquent use of words to justify these reasons.
He also argues that humanity’s greatest desire is to understand. So a good plot must present a self contained puzzle — a beginning, middle, and end — that both makes sense and is surprising, that the viewer comes to understand something in the process that they didn’t know when the story begins.
There is some interesting discussion at the end regarding the visual medium of tragic plays vs. epic poetry. Aristotle argues that actors verbally expressing ideas is a better form of imitation than a written narrative of an epic. The visuals of a performance and the shorter run time of tragedy also make it superior to epic poetry. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that, Aristotle.
Anyway. Aristotle says there are six important parts of tragedy in order of importance: plot, character, reason, diction, music, and spectacle (meaning the visual display of a performance, not sensational visuals). It’s all about the plot: characters to move the plot,“necessary and probable” reasons for actions taking place, and eloquent use of words to justify these reasons.
He also argues that humanity’s greatest desire is to understand. So a good plot must present a self contained puzzle — a beginning, middle, and end — that both makes sense and is surprising, that the viewer comes to understand something in the process that they didn’t know when the story begins.
There is some interesting discussion at the end regarding the visual medium of tragic plays vs. epic poetry. Aristotle argues that actors verbally expressing ideas is a better form of imitation than a written narrative of an epic. The visuals of a performance and the shorter run time of tragedy also make it superior to epic poetry. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that, Aristotle.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
in order to write tragic poetry, you must be either a genius who can adapt himself to anything, or a madman who lets himself get carried away.
I really don't have anything new to add to reviews of this book, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that Aristotle's text is important or influential or anything like that. It has, after all, survived thousands of years and served as the basis of a lot of work on literary structure. I can only say that I read it after watching Aaron Sorkin's screenwriting class in which he strongly recommends it and I must say that I also found it to be still relevant and useful and extremely highlight worthy. So, yeah, a good enough pamphlet if you want more info on the origins of plot structure. It's a huge shame that so many of the texts he refers to have since been lost and we have no way of knowing what he's actually talking about half the time but ... when we know what he's saying, it's quite useful.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced