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Comment by lordnacho | Hacker News Reader

I find the same with age. I've seen every plot, every type of character.

I have a friend who was working with movie scripts, and he described it like a factory. Generally every movie is a 5 act play, you get an intro to some typical character then something happens to them that's either funny or serious depending on genre, then there's a solution, etc.

But perhaps the thing to do is not to expect surprise in the general construction, but excellence in the execution. That's why I can still watch stuff that's highly rated eg Breaking Bad. Shakespeare is another one of those where you can how it's made, but it's made well.

Food is the same. It's gonna be a mixture of fat and sugar, with some water and flavourings. But some things are better done than others.

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There are only two plots: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town.

Although if you really think about it, there's only one plot, because a man who goes on a journey is a stranger who comes to town in another town.

Pulp Fiction?

I'll take a shot at it. There are lots of strangers who have come to Los Angeles: Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, Butch and Fabienne, Brett and Flock-of-Seagulls, the Gimp, etc. Marsellus is no stranger to Los Angeles, but he is a bit out of his element at the pawnshop. Vincent has returned home after a journey abroad, as has Captain Koons. Jules is at the beginning of a journey and will soon leave Los Angeles...

Of course there are "townies" like Marvin, Lance and Jody, the Wolf and Raquel, Kathy Griffin, Maynard and Zed, Esmarelda, etc. who mostly serve as foils to those on journeys, but that's perfectly normal. Mia was once a stranger in town, but she liked it enough to stay.

> Mia was once a stranger in town

Weren't we all?

> There are only two plots: a man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy regains girl?

I suppose the meets-loses-regains sequence can be considered a journey if you squint at it enough, but that doesn't feel quite right.

> Although if you really think about it, there's only one plot, because a man who goes on a journey is a stranger who comes to town in another town.

Ooh, that's an interesting observation, the difference between the two is in swapping the foreground and background.

In fact, hmm, now that I think of it, quite a lot of episodic drama deliberately uses that same swap or superposition to occasionally change things up for an episode. And a few are always about the same stranger on a journey coming to an endless series of towns (The Incredible Hulk, The Pretender, even The Littlest Hobo).

Boy meets girl is by definition a man goes on a journey.

I did sort of like Game of Thrones. Yes, at some point not-formulaic became it's own sort of formula but I did enjoy the series.

Actually, there was that one section where it seemed like the budget for special effects got a boost and from that point onward they displaced a lot of plot.

Game of Thrones spiraled downhill due to a lack of source material in the last few seasons.

I'm not sure what your experience with the books are but, as someone who's read a _ton_ on fantasy novels GoT is pretty boring and mundane. I can see where people do get excited about it but I can find a good 10 or 20 high fantasy novels that do everything that GoT does.

GRRM has style, and seems super original if you haven't read a ton of the genre.

I have a hard finding new fantasy books these days, because the synopsis are so boring. It usually goes "Yada yada presentation but bigger picture (usually about how the fate of the world is at stake and only the hero can save it)".

It's fine, that's what I expect from a fantasy book, but what's missing is what's your USP, why should I read your book instead of the countless others. Why did you write the damn book? It's a pretty big ordeal, so surely the author it could bring something different. They just seem to fail at expressing what.

I'm curious to hear your list. I've read a lot of fantasy and IMO the vast majority of it is poorly written schlock. GRRM stands out to me because he can actually write fairly well (though the quality has slipped a bit in the last couple books).

What I recall liking that I read recently was anything by brent weeks (though lightbringer book 5 was a little long), and the chalion series by lois mcmaster bujold.

> But perhaps the thing to do is not to expect surprise in the general construction, but excellence in the execution.

I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, but I do find this to be the main criteria by which I judge them. Dorothy Sayer's "Lord Peter Wimsey" stories, for example, are simply a ton of fun to reread even after I know the solution to the puzzle. Everything else is so well done that the story can still stand on its own.

It's quite interesting when you come across a mainstream film which doesn't follow the standard structure and Tropes.

I remember watching 'About Time' in the cinema - a Richard Curtis concoction and thinking 'This did not follow the structure I thought it would follow at all'. Refreshing.

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