Comment on To save the superhero movie, we need to bring back themes
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 days agoSure mate, Stephen King says this:
. . . starting with the questions and thematic concerns is a recipe for bad fiction. Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story”
But what does he know?
wjrii@lemmy.world 3 days ago
How to write okayish page-turners that are far from the only valid way to approach literature?
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yeah, if we weren’t talking about Marvel films you’d have a point.
wjrii@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Maybe the themes in a Marvel movie will be more universal and rather broadly drawn, but to avoid overstaying their welcome with a rote and repetitive “peril-catharis” cycle, the action needs to be in service to something compelling. Otherwise, it just sort of sputters to the finish line because ultimately we’ve seen the stories before. To the extent he’s not just talking out of his ass, King’s describing a workflow, not a philosophy.
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Hang on, are we arguing for the same thing? That story, and more importantly, compelling story, is what is needed?
I was just using king as an example of someone who crafts stories… Whether they are page-turners or not, that compel audiences.
My problem with Marvel films is that they are stale, narratively, and as such the only thing that can fix them is decent writing that isn’t in the service of “franchise”.