The specialisation of our species is storytelling -- and yet, some people say, we are really just telling the same stories again and again.
Welcome to Episode 69 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.
In this episode, Amit discusses the classic book by Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots. Booker asserts that there are just seven storylines we recycle again and again -- and all of literature & Hollywood & Bollywood & Tollywood & Lollywood draw on these. What are they? Can there be more? Why should we never feel constrained as storytellers? What do Jaws, Sholay and the Russia-Ukraine war have in common?
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00 Packaging
00:13 Intro: What Is That Orange Ball in the Sky?
03:31 Prologue: Finding the Tropes
11:22 Chapter 1: Overcoming the Monster
14:41 Chapter 2: Rags to Riches
18:40 Chapter 3: The Quest
24:05 Chapter 4: Voyage and Return
27:55 Chapter 5: Comedy
34:56 Chapter 6: Tragedy
40:38 Chapter 7: Rebirth
43:25 Chapter 8: A Tragic Ending to the Episode
For magnificent, detailed, juicy show notes, click here.
