On May 1, 2008, at 5:38 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Agreed, the "And then?" appetite is crucial to the success of most storytelling, but, of course, Aristotle would claim there are much more profound yearnings at work in the plays he admired most -- and much more profound satisfactions than just that of knowing "how it turns out".
My experience has been that, even when we (I) know "how it turns out," if the play or movie is sufficiently satisfying or engaging, we (I) want to see it again, to re-enjoy and appreciate how the playwright formed the scenes and words--those non-contingent, free creations--and how the actors and director realized them, how the other cinemagraphic or dramaturgical arts supported the telling of the story, etc.
This re-experiencing a play or movie is like the re-sating of an appetite. We're hungry or lustful, we know what we want, we know almost exactly how the forthcoming experience will feel, yet we strive for it as a new or renewed thing. Afterwards, we may shortly want it again. And only after so many repetitions in short succession does our utter satiation so completely blunt our senses that we cannot taste or feel the experience that not long ago was the complete focus of our purpose.
I reread books, or at least parts of them, sometimes in a short span of time, and occasionally I watch movies several times over in a couple of days, too (as when they are replayed on cable channels). I do this because the first experience, fragmented and imperfectly remembered, was so compelling or intriguing that I want to repeat it and contemplate the whole sequence of the play.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady [EMAIL PROTECTED]
