The invocation of Aristotle
I wrote recently here on digital-basin in praise of the book The Power of Film by Howard Suber. In continuing the recurring theme of late here on the blog looking at screenwriting I thought it worth reflecting on what Suber describes as 'Aristotlary' - in simple terms the attribution to Aristotle of things that he never actually said; the act of invoking Aristotle's name to legitimise specific dramatic structures.
Aristotle and the 3 Act Structure is the much loved and lauded backbone of popular screenwriting. But the truth is that whilst the 3 Act Structure is readily attributed to Aristotle he never actually wrote at all about acts or structures. It's only the later applied interpretations that made the attribution. Aristotle was simply a philosopher concerned with the human condition. In drama, and in particular dramatic tragedy, Aristotle saw a means to explore, engage with and understand human behaviour. His work Poetics is really little more than an examination of what it is about human behaviour and actions that is engaging, that struggles and triumphs.
This is not at all to undervalue Aristotle or his contribution to the crafting of 'Drama'. His central philosophical work underpins everything we have come to understand about human drama, about struggle, tension and dramatic action. Status Quo, the notion of a heroes 'darkest hour' and the 'reversal of fortune' all derive from Aristotelian concepts and are crucial to dramatic storytelling of any kind.
But this underpinning is from a perspective of philosophical ideas not formulaic structures. The 3 Act Structure is a very useful framework for understanding how a great many stories work - much like musical forms. It should be studied and understood as a useful scaffolding, but it is not and shouldn't be a formulaic straight jacket or rigid apparatus.
Aristotle's ideas should be embraced as a way to understand the 'Human' that drives 'Character' and 'Story'; Not as formula for creating Story.
Suber articulates this mis-interpretation beautifully :
"Making up "laws" about drama and then ascribing them to Aristotle is an ancient game. The point here is not to knock Aristotle, but rather his interpreters. As with the words of many other smart and insightful teachers (the carpenter from Nazareth comes to mind), those who claim to be Aristotle's disciples and speak on his behalf are all too often obsessed with inventing "rules" that choke the life out of human experience and diversity."p.26
Posted at 12:00AM Nov 11, 2007
by Mike Jones in moving image theory |
More seriously, what H Suber says about screenwriting books is that people writing them get confused: they think they mean structure, when really they talk about scaffolding. When you build a church or a house, you do need a scaffolding (which is what people teach).
But that doesnt help you the slightest bit when you want to build a house. You need to learn how to structure a house, and not only learn how to erect a scaffolding.
The scaffolding is the external look of the structure ("inciting incident", status quo, and so forth...). And thats what people teach... And thats what the drawing is about...
Posted by Benk on November 21, 2007 at 08:11 AM EST #
Posted by Mike Jones on November 22, 2007 at 09:07 AM EST #
what Aristotle *did* say was not that a play must have 3 acts, but that a play must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Interpreters concluded that this meant 3 parts, hence 3 acts - whereas Shakespeare's plays were divided in 5 acts - and they all do have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
"These principles being established, let us now discuss the proper structure of the Plot, since this is the first and most important thing in Tragedy.
Now, according to our definition Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude; for there may be a whole that is wanting in magnitude. A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end"
The truth is, Aristotle doesnt say much more than this...
Posted by benk on November 22, 2007 at 10:33 PM EST #