Kishōtenketsu is a compound word whose sub-syllables describe their steps in the plot. Hell, China basically invented it with Journey to the West. Yes, that is a Japanese word but the same concepts very much apply to storytelling in the rest of the Far East. This is defined by the story structure Kishōtenketsu. Tensions rapidly deescalate and the story slips into the (optional) denouement.Ĭonflict is essential to this story structure. Act II ends when the tension comes to a head.Īct III: The climax of the story where one way or another the conflict is resolved and is no longer present. Act I ends when there is an inciting incident that begins the second act.Īct II: The tension of this conflict builds and escalates. All aspects of the tale will be adjacent in some manner to the central conflict.Īct I: Setting, we meet the characters and get to know their world, and the conflict is introduced.
Most of our fiction is based on the three-act story and conflict is central to this structure.
Darklings of long-time standing can skip this next part, you know it by heart by now. However, they blend seamlessly when you are using an Eastern story structure like the Japanese Kishōtenketsu . Whereas character-driven science fiction stories are all about: Tell me about a guy who…?ĭoing both is very difficult because these are very different skill sets. The reason is that hard Science Fiction tends to be setting-driven, it’s all about: What if…? You can have one or the other but rarely both. This is usually a dichotomy in the world of science fiction. Yet his deeply layered characterizations don’t suffer for it.
In some ways, it’s a throwback to the days of Larry Niven. The story is completely different.Ĭixin Liu writes the hardest hard science fiction out there. For any of you who followed my recommendation, I should tell you now that the story and the movie only share the same setting. The same thing is present in the Wandering Earth stories.Ī while back I had recommended the Chinese film, The Wandering Earth. However, once I learned a couple of things about the PRC I could spot the places where you could see Liu was clearly towing the Party line. That book began with an unflinching look at the fanaticism and brutality of the Cultural Revolution. When I read his first novel, I was honestly rather surprised by what he was able to get away with in Communist China. I found this collection as intriguing as the Three Body for similar reasons. Which incidentally was the last time the Hugos reflected the voice of the entire fandom instead just 300-pound, purple-haired weirdos. The Wandering Earth is an anthology of novellas by Cixin Liu, the (2015) Hugo Award-winning author of the Three-Body Problem.
0 kommentar(er)
