A correspondent writes:

The twist in Messiah V is just that, a twist - actually quite unexpected - but so formulaic that I feel cheap watching it. Why would anyone bother writing anything if there are truly only about 9 plots in the world? Have all the stories been told? Perhaps it’s that I don’t believe in the characters, and so I don’t care about them; whereas if I care about characters, even in a silly chick flick, then it doesn’t matter what the plot is. (Discuss - 30 points available, spend about 25 minutes on this question).

On the surface, this is a question about plot vs character. But in answering it I shall be going in another direction, which is to suggest that in a well-crafted story, plot and character are effectively one and the same.

We are all of us, fictional and otherwise, defined by the decisions we make. We empathise with people who make choices akin to the ones we’d make ourselves, and in fiction of any kind we have the opportunity to explore the choices of those who think and act rather differently from ourselves. Faced with a hostage crisis, I don’t myself know anyone who’d sling on a string vest and tackle it personally, but it’s nice to know that Bruce Willis can be counted on to do so in the Die Hard films. Character is choice; choice is action, and hence plot; see?

Now, the thing with choices is that there are truly thousands available to us in any situation, but because of a whole range of factors – upbringing, manners, training, sunspot activity, media influence – we tend to only actually respond within a narrow band, unless provoked by decisions with life or death consequences. So, it’s interesting to us to watch the choices that other people make – in real life, or in chick flicks for that matter. And we learn from that, if research in mirror neurons is anything to go by. Mirror neurons activate not only when we perform various actions ourselves, but when we watch others enact them too; hence the utility of sports players watching better performers than themselves to help train, and the reason we are stimulated by pornography…mirror neurons seem to be the key to the process of learning and empathy.

Drama then, is a means of understanding others, and ourselves, through watching the choices that fictional characters make. And that runs right the way through learning from the Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, to figuring out serial killers on Messiah. In between those points, we get to watch a whole bunch of film and television, and in the process we become adept at spotting patterns that have become embedded in popular drama for reasons of economics or marketing. For instance, you know in turning on your favourite detective show that the lead isn’t going to die unless s/he’s done a round of Sunday paper interviews about it to promote the fact, and their new stage play in the West End. You know the killer isn’t going to be the person who is most suspicious at the time of the first ad break, because there’s another two ad breaks before the end of the show, and it needs to zig and zag between them and one or two other potential culprits before the reveal. And so on. All of which helps perpetuate the notion that there are only nine types of story. There aren’t, really. But sometimes it can make it easier for writers, producers, script editors and so on to buy into that perspective, because it makes life easier when you’re working to something along the lines of a formula.

So, it’s no wonder that you like watching well-realised characters, because they get to do and say things that you’ve not seen or heard before, and they get your mirror neurons tingling because you’re taking new stuff in. But, that doesn’t mean the proponents of ‘nine types of story’ are totally off-beam. Think in a big enough frame and some things become unavoidably noticeable. Go back to the very first post on this site, and the first comment on it, which I very much agree with and will reprint here. Thanks, MTG:

When an intention meets an obstacle; it’s called drama… or comedy… or tragedy… or something.

When a square peg tries to fit a round hole; you have the human encounter with culture. The secret is that almost everyone is (or feels like) a square peg in some domain or other.

The rest of the equation is: “Are you happy with your lot?”

And there you have it:

Square pegs wanting to fit round holes; unhappy with lot.

Square pegs not wanting to fit round holes; happy with lot.

Round pegs not wanting to be seen to be square; happy with lot but afraid.

Round pegs wanting to be square; unhappy with lot.

“What is it about these displays of honest ineptness that grabs me”

You’re human.

“and is there something that can be learned, given that all three films received critical and box office success?”

The Outsider is a perpetual character; we are all outsiders.

Anything that keeps the aspiring but weird hopeful, will sell.