tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post8020683246900572228..comments2024-03-28T11:52:29.432-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: Storyteller’s Rulebook: #158: The Paradox of Genre FictionMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-49288930267906483692012-10-31T08:48:33.584-04:002012-10-31T08:48:33.584-04:00Destroying what you thought made the thing worth w...Destroying what you thought made the thing worth writing in the first place often works out just fine. Hopefully you'll find that that was just a starting point, not the whole point. Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-8149154905118424172012-10-30T21:56:19.030-04:002012-10-30T21:56:19.030-04:00Your solution makes AWAKE more relatable but also ...Your solution makes AWAKE more relatable but also less original. I'm thinking that maybe there's a rule in here somewhere. Because I just massively screwed up a draft of something I was working on by refusing to ask these hard questions or to accept the fact that my high concept premise just was not a metaphor for any undergirding emotional reality. And it couldn't easily be made to be without destroying what I thought made the thing worth writing in the first place. I guess that's what I get for not starting from character. For thinking that that stuff would work itself out.j.s.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-80578230978591911722012-10-30T08:19:58.244-04:002012-10-30T08:19:58.244-04:00This is all true. (I've talked before about t...This is all true. (I've talked before about the unrelateability of dead kid stories, after all.)<br /><br />Maybe if both had died, and he was escaping more and more into dreams in which they'd lived, then that would be a metaphor for having to choose between fantasy and reality. Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-80143463176483924702012-10-30T03:05:44.331-04:002012-10-30T03:05:44.331-04:00I never saw AWAKE but I read the pilot script and ...I never saw AWAKE but I read the pilot script and I had a number of problems with it that I'm surprised you got past. Starting with the fact that it's so exposition heavy that I felt like I spent most of my energy following verbal exposition in a way that reminded me of something like INCEPTION, but delivered in a more static and less interesting situation. Then there's the question of why the protagonist is a cop exactly, what that has to do with his split world dilemma, why it's an other than arbitrary choice for his profession. And finally there's the biggest question of all which is what is this a metaphor for exactly? Where's the point of emotional connection for the audience with this ordinary man caught up in an extraordinary situation? Most of us won't ever have to make this kind of Sophie's Choice about which reality is really real and so which loved one gets to stay dead and buried. For me, it wasn't so much that the show was a downer but that this dilemma was just kind of wildly unrelatable, that it didn't stand in for any more common experiences. And I just couldn't see it sustaining enough energy and interest for a whole season let alone many more.j.s.noreply@blogger.com