tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post7571950182363386871..comments2024-03-14T18:09:09.667-05:00Comments on Do Some Damage: Narrative TrapsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-58546270733075640582012-09-03T09:23:55.959-05:002012-09-03T09:23:55.959-05:00I'm at Season 4, Episode 11 of Breaking Bad no...I'm at Season 4, Episode 11 of Breaking Bad now and it was always in my mind that when Walter went into meth cooking, he opened a pandora's box he couldn't close...in his own mind. <br /><br />Like Bryan Cranston said in interview, he first read Walter as a guy who "gave up", so there is something profoundly life-affirming for him, at being a bad guy, because he is being defined. He is finally somebody. In season 4, Skyler is freaking out and telling him she's worried he's in danger and Walter said she shouldn't worry because HE IS the danger. I liked that. I liked the pride with which he said such thing.<br /><br />But you're right, it is a trap and I live to find those writers who can trap me and lead me into false paths only to ram the truth back to my face. That's what I like the best in fiction.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11483490020980574428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-31337676880928269572012-09-03T07:44:48.069-05:002012-09-03T07:44:48.069-05:00I am finishing watching the first four seasons of ...I am finishing watching the first four seasons of MAD MEN and I see so many things I didn't see the first time. A truly good show requires more than one viewing because things are set into motion long before they play out in shows like this and you miss the early clues. I watched the first series of PRIME SUSPECT recently too and I see what you are saying. This sort of thing gives depth to the characters and the series because life does not unfold in predictable narrative ways. pattinase (abbott)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02916037185235335846noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-52266610590105748542012-09-03T07:18:01.110-05:002012-09-03T07:18:01.110-05:00I love traps like this, and use them a lot. SPOILE...I love traps like this, and use them a lot. SPOILERS. Ahem. Anyway.<br /><br />I think it's great fun as a writer to put in a scene knowing that it really means something different to what the reader will take it to mean on that first reading. Even within mystery stories I think a lot of readers are still expecting a certain linear experience, where pieces of information will come along every few chapters but each page that they read can be taken at face value and adds up to the answer. I like the idea of laying traps within that, and giving information later on that totally changes the way an earlier scene should be read. I'm currently writing a third book in a trilogy and wondering to what extent I can get away with adding in things that show the reader that scenes they thought they had a handle on in the first book were not that way at all. There has to come a point when i gets too much and you lose the reader, but i've not found that yet.<br /><br />I've not had quite the same reaction with BREAKING BAD, though. It's probably because I've watched all of it this year, catching up after years of hearing everyone else talk about it, but right from season 1 I've been watching the story of a bad guy. I've never rooted for Walt as an anti-hero or a desperate man seeking desperate measures or any of that. Now JESSE on the other hand....<br /><br /><br /><br />Jay Stringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08764183157841848163noreply@blogger.com