>>> Item number 25518 from WRITERS LOG9402B --- (105 records) ---- <<< Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: The 36 Dramatic Situations (Book Notes) One of the books that is often referred to when discussing "how many plots are there" is one by Georges Polti. Having stumbled across the name several times, and having thoroughly learned to investigate original sources when possible (they often say something very different from what "everyone knows"), I have a copy of this book. [I don't recommend this book, mostly because it is written in an older, flamboyant style that makes it painful to figure out what he's talking about. Interesting oddity of the writing world, though.] Frankly, I think Polti was interested in a whole different question - what are the basic situations into which literature can be divided? Note that a novel or play may use several situations, and may make variations on those. He is looking for the "basic colors" used to paint the pictures - not trying to limit the combinations and permutations, but trying to identify what "underlies" all the plots. If the artist tells us that there are only 3 primary colors (or whatever), no one interprets that to mean that there are not an almost infinite number of shadings available. Yet when Polti or someone says there are X basic situations, somehow we think that means there are limits on the plots available. Anyway - Polti's own words, for your consideration... The thirty-six dramatic situations Georges Polti (1868-) (translated by Lucille Ray) Copyright 1977 (original copyright 1921) The Writer, Inc. Boston "...for there were indeed, as he [Gozzi] had indicated, thirty-six categories which I had to formulate in order to distribute fitly among them the innumerable dramas awaiting classification. There is, I hasten to say, nothing mystic or cabalistic about this particular number; it might perhaps be possible to choose one a trifle higher or lower, but this one I consider the most accurate." (p. 9) here is a summary of his dramatic situation #1 - with the 10 varieties that Polti noted under it! 1. Supplication (Persecutor, Suppliant, and a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful) a power whose decision is awaited is a distinct personage (1) Fugitives imploring the powerful for help against their enemies (2) assistance implored for the performance of a pious duty which has been forbidden (3) appeals for a refuge in which to die b undecided power is an attribute of persecutor himself (1) Hospitality besought by the shipwrecked (2) charity entreated by those casst off by their own people, whom they have disgraced (3) Expiation: the seeking of pardon, healing, or deliverance (4) The surrender of a corpse, or of a relic, solicited c suppliant divided into two persons, the Persecuted and the Intercessor (1) supplication of the powerful for those dear to the suppliant (2) supplication to a relative in behalf of another relative (3) supplication to a mother's lover, in her behalf In the conclusion, Polti first talks about how to obtain nuances of the situations - e.g., enumerate the ties of friendship or kinship possible among the characters; determine the degree of consciousness, of free-will and knowledge of the real end to which they are moving; divide a character into two with one acting as a blind instrument of the other; modify the energy or target of the actions resulting from them; or substitute a group of characters for any single character. He also mentions combining situations in various ways. He alludes to a separate work on "Laws of Literary Invention" which would show how these thirty-six basic situations "may be endlessly multiplied." [challenge for the librarians amongst us - did he write that book? it would probably be in French, if he did.] He also offers ten thousand scenarios, realistic, effective, and totally different. I think Polti was trying to lay out the basic categories, with some hints at the finer divisions, within which we might fit the pieces of all literature. He mentions that in this exposition he only cites a mere 1,200 examples. However, he seems to take care not to say that these dramatic situations are "plots" - indeed, at several points he talks about the uncountable numbers of plots that can be built using these situations. I think he was trying to identify "building blocks" or some such abstraction, without any intent of constraining the artist. Sorry, chums, but as far as I can tell, Polti didn't mean there are a few plots - in fact, he was more interested in finding out which situations we rarely use, and in developing ways of multiplying the number of plots available by wringing variations, combinations, and other changes on these building blocks! So - don't worry, we only got two sexes, but we make lots and lots of people out of those two basics. With 36 situations, think how many different plots you could make, especially stirring in characters, setting, etc. tink