Aristotle/Plots/Grammar

L. Schulte lschulte at sfstoledo.org
Tue Feb 17 16:49:13 CET 2004


Concerning plots, Aristotle is the one who opined that all stories can be 
boiled down to 4 basic conflicts: man vs. man, man vs. Nature, man vs. God, 
and man vs. himself.
Some might say that Science Fiction has added the conflict of man vs. 
machine; others would say that is just man vs. himself (Who made the 
machine?).  Others would combine man vs. Nature/God as one conflict.

Donald stories obviously use the plot of duck vs. himself  quite often as 
the main source of the story's energy.

And I have always been annoyed by the mistake in the title "Honey, I Shrunk 
the Kids": it should be "shrank"  (parallel with drink, drank, has drunk), 
but given that the illiterati are in charge and the barbarians are running 
the asylum, you hear monstrosities like "I seen" or "I've ran" "He's drank" 
etc.  everywhere, even from people who shouild know better!



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