I remember reading once that there are only really nine or seven stories and all literature films etc are retellings of these. How many are there and what are they?

Answer 1

John Campbell believed that all myths were the same and followed the same general pattern. You can read all about it in his book, Hero with a Thousand Faces. See, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti, for an analysis of the thirty-six ways a story can be told, with examples. Many writers use this book. Note that he often uses dry, facetious humor in his discussions. The statement is true only in so far as it expresses the concept of "story" in a very, very loose way. This statement would consider, for example, that RoboCop is a story of identity. In that very broad sense, then RoboCop is the same story as The Mill on the Floss, Citizen Kane, and The Sea Wolf. But in a specific sense, RoboCop is a sci-fi/police/revenge story about humanity's struggle with machinery; The Mill on the Floss is a Victorian story on female identity and duty; Citizen Kane is about power, corruption and isolation; and The Sea Wolf is about a civilized man's regression to a man of nature, and the struggle between masculinity and femininity, between culture and nature, between violence and civility. None of the above stories are "the same story", unless you were to overlook their specific settings, characters and styles, and distilled them to a very broad essence. In that sense, then, there are only indeed a few stories, such as: - Bildungsroman ("coming of age", e.g. The Prince and the Pauper, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, even Gawain and the Green Knight) - Romance ("boy meets girl", or "boy meets boy/girl meets girl", e.g. Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, Wall-E) - Rise and fall (e.g. Gone with the Wind, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Faust, Casino) - Death (e.g. King Lear, Ikiru, Reservoir Dogs, Ponette) What you may be referring to is plot. There are only so many possible plot lines for a story. Plot is inextricably connected to conflict, without conflict you have no story. What you have is a recipe or the directions for putting together your kid's swingset. The traditional ideas of plot are as follows: # Good vs. Evil # Man vs. Man # Man vs. Nature # Man vs. Self # Man vs. Society or Culture # Man vs. God, the gods, or the supernatural # Man vs. Machine/Monster (but some argue that this is an extension of Man vs. Man) There are a number of stories that can be used to identify each of these. For example, from those above: * William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a societal conflict, therefore it is Man vs. Society or Culture. * Disney's Wall-e could be seen as a form of Romeo and Juliet,or as Man vs. Man. * RoboCop is basic Good vs. Evil, nothing more. * The Sea Wolf and Moby Dick are Man vs. Nature. * Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is Man vs. Machine (possibly Good vs. Evil) The best stories combine the seven possible forms of conflict into a more complex plot. This is what can make it difficult to identify the central conflict of a story sometimes. Basically, if you can identify the conflict and support your argument with elements from the story, any answer you give is correct. After all, the story isn't just the words of the author granted upon a grateful, receptive audience. You, the reader bring something to the table every time you pick up a book. Reading is a reciprocal transaction, not a gift giving exercise.