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The Narrative: A question and theory
10 years ago
Baron: "Ladies, I shall require your assistance."
Lady 1: "Of Course!"
Lady 2: "Anything!"
Lady 3: " Just tell us what to do!"
Baron: "Kindly, be so good, as to remove your knickers."
Lady 1: "Of Course!"
Lady 2: "Anything!"
Lady 3: " Just tell us what to do!"
Baron: "Kindly, be so good, as to remove your knickers."
I realize it's kinda odd for me to make a journal so soon, but I just had one of those "Huh, that actually makes a decent bit of sense" moments concerning narrative stories. There are many kinds of stories out there, but for the longest time (well, at least from my 6th grade English teacher through college) we were told that all stories are permutations of "The Hero's Journey". The Hero's Journey is a narrative structure that can be applied to every story out there and has been around since time began at this point. It's where a singular character is called to adventure from his known realm into the unknown where he is challenged, tempted, and eventually transformed into a new person from what they were at the start and eventually return to their home. Fairly cyclical in nature, but develops into one hell of a story. Up till today, it made sense that soo many narratives follow this formula. It's the growth of a character as the world challenges them.
Now, I question if this heroic narrative is all that there actually is or if we've just been applying it to places where it, quite frankly doesn't belong. Around October/November of 2014, Cartoon Network green-lit a short mini-series called "Over the Garden Wall". It's recently been put out on DVDs for those who haven't seen it and my copy just came earlier today. For those who haven't seen it or had no interest in it on it's first run, GO BUY THIS DVD AND SHOW CN THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA AND THAT THEY SHOULD DO MORE OF IT. It's honestly that good. As I was rewatching it, it got me thinking, what is it about the show that really got my interest beyond the art, the style, and the writing. As I was thinking, it occurred to me that, while it does have the monomyth in it, it's not chained chained to it as a good many other narratives are. Same, dare I say it, goes for a good many other shows that reached high-popularity. A few Anime, some shows here and there, various comic books, the occasional movie, and a decent amount of videogames all buck the monomyth paradigm and focus more on the journey itself instead of the character's growth.
This leads me to the the theory mentioned earlier. I'd like to propose that there are at least 2 writing structures out there, The Heroic Narrative, and the Journey Narrative. Neither of the narrative structures are completely unique to each other as you can see the Heroic Narrative within the Journey and vice versa. The main difference between the two, at least as far as I can define, is who or what the story develops more over it's course. If the heroes develop further and everything around remains fairly static, then it's a Heroic Narrative, ala the Iliad/Odyssey. However, and this is where I might be argued with, if the entire world grows, evolves, and develops over the course of the story, it's a Journey Narrative. A few recent pieces that seem to show this to me include One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Over the Garden Wall, and a giant chunk of the main Marvel universe. It's not just about seeing the ripples of water the protagonists make, but also how the entire world changes, evolves, grows, shrinks, and creates it's own waves as well.
What do you think? I could write and iron this out more, but I'd just like to see if anyone has a couple of cents to throw into this jar. I'd like to hear what people think.
Now, I question if this heroic narrative is all that there actually is or if we've just been applying it to places where it, quite frankly doesn't belong. Around October/November of 2014, Cartoon Network green-lit a short mini-series called "Over the Garden Wall". It's recently been put out on DVDs for those who haven't seen it and my copy just came earlier today. For those who haven't seen it or had no interest in it on it's first run, GO BUY THIS DVD AND SHOW CN THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA AND THAT THEY SHOULD DO MORE OF IT. It's honestly that good. As I was rewatching it, it got me thinking, what is it about the show that really got my interest beyond the art, the style, and the writing. As I was thinking, it occurred to me that, while it does have the monomyth in it, it's not chained chained to it as a good many other narratives are. Same, dare I say it, goes for a good many other shows that reached high-popularity. A few Anime, some shows here and there, various comic books, the occasional movie, and a decent amount of videogames all buck the monomyth paradigm and focus more on the journey itself instead of the character's growth.
This leads me to the the theory mentioned earlier. I'd like to propose that there are at least 2 writing structures out there, The Heroic Narrative, and the Journey Narrative. Neither of the narrative structures are completely unique to each other as you can see the Heroic Narrative within the Journey and vice versa. The main difference between the two, at least as far as I can define, is who or what the story develops more over it's course. If the heroes develop further and everything around remains fairly static, then it's a Heroic Narrative, ala the Iliad/Odyssey. However, and this is where I might be argued with, if the entire world grows, evolves, and develops over the course of the story, it's a Journey Narrative. A few recent pieces that seem to show this to me include One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Over the Garden Wall, and a giant chunk of the main Marvel universe. It's not just about seeing the ripples of water the protagonists make, but also how the entire world changes, evolves, grows, shrinks, and creates it's own waves as well.
What do you think? I could write and iron this out more, but I'd just like to see if anyone has a couple of cents to throw into this jar. I'd like to hear what people think.
