Aug 31 2008
“How” is the Crucial Question
I recently finished watching Penelope, and I was struck by two notions: 1) I really liked the movie, and 2) I tend to hate romantic comedies, and Penelope is precisely that, a romantic comedy. It follows the same path typical in most of them: boy meets girl, something keeps them from just coming out with it that they like each other, they both have some sort of epiphany (or at least one of them does), and after the epiphany they finally get together with a really good kiss (okay, some movies don’t have so great a kiss…Breakfast at Tiffany’s had a really good one, as did Penelope).
Now, before all of you freak out and remind me how much you liked Penelope, let me remind you that I said I enjoyed it too. I know that part of it was the fantasy of it–give me a little magic in a movie, and you usually have my attention, with only a handful of exceptions–but it was more than that. Although the movie ended romantically, it wasn’t because each person changed romantically…it was because each person–Penelope and Johnny–worked on him or herself…they grew, but not merely to grow back to each other. And he didn’t come in like the hero of an old fairy tale and save her. She saved herself, he saved himself, and when they were both whole, they found each other again.
You see, even though journalists are taught to say who, what, where, when, and how something happened, it is the HOW that is most important for me. The same events happened overall, but the WAY they happened held more meaning for me.
Similarly, a book can have interesting events, yet it is the WAY those events are narrated that is most compelling for me. HOW the story is told is by far the most important part of the story. Style is everything.
What style or method of storytelling do you find most interesting or compelling? How much do you notice it as you read?
I have not seen Penelope.
But understanding how something worked, man, I do that. Most of the books I read, I can’t enjoy like I did when I was young. I tear it apart as I go, noticing where something worked, something didn’t. Movies, too.
The books I know I’ll be putting on my bedroom shelf with the rest of the books I read over and over for pleasure, are the ones that I forget to take apart as I read such that, when I’m done, I go, “Wow, that was great. I’ve got to go back and figure out why!”
I didn’t mention a style, per se, because I don’t really have one. I actually read all types of fiction, but I look for high caliber characters and humor. If I like the people (and humor always helps with that), I can weather almost any plot.
You would LOVE the movie JUNO, then. I saw it last night, after I blogged about PENELOPE. It takes a traditional tale about a girl who gets pregnant in high school and turns it on its head. Fabulous dialogue, very interesting characters, lots of tension. Richard and I enjoyed it tremendously. I want to write so originally!