I dunno. I think there's a level of storytelling that applies to both. (I use movies to illustrate points about writing and storytelling all the time--because they are shorter, and the narrative is perforce simpler, they come in handy. They get their richness (the good ones) in other ways--layering, and visuals, and acting, and subtext.
But that's neither here nor there. Narrative cheating is narrative cheating, and if you want to know what I mean, go watch the modern remake of Oceans 11 and then watch Oceans 12.
The second one cheats. It conceals something important about the caper plot until the end. The first one gives you all the information you need, and doesn't explain it.
That's an unreliable author, in movie terms. Agatha Christie cheats too, and in similar ways, which is why I won't read her.
You can also have an unreliable narrator in a movie--The Usual Suspects.
(And I dunno if you've ever sat down and had an argument with a group of people who've had completely different experiences of a movie because they read the subtext differently, but I have.)
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 10:48 pm (UTC)But that's neither here nor there. Narrative cheating is narrative cheating, and if you want to know what I mean, go watch the modern remake of Oceans 11 and then watch Oceans 12.
The second one cheats. It conceals something important about the caper plot until the end. The first one gives you all the information you need, and doesn't explain it.
That's an unreliable author, in movie terms. Agatha Christie cheats too, and in similar ways, which is why I won't read her.
You can also have an unreliable narrator in a movie--The Usual Suspects.
(And I dunno if you've ever sat down and had an argument with a group of people who've had completely different experiences of a movie because they read the subtext differently, but I have.)