The bigger story

There are only two stories in this world.

  • The guy gets the girl

  • The guy doesn’t get the girl

Everything else you can come up with is a variant or add on of this.

Posted by Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan on November 11th, 2005 | Filed in Books and Reviews, Random Writings |


14 Responses to “The bigger story”

  1. suman Says:

    what you say is correct for romance stories. But I’d like to add four more to your list:
    1) Guy get Guy
    2) Guy doesn’t get guy
    3) Girl gets girl
    4) Girl doesn’t get girl.
    I am just keeping with the times.
    Also, they say there are seven basic plots:
    1 Overcoming the Monster (e.g. Beowulf, Dracula)
    2 Rags to Riches (Cinderella, Dick Whittington)
    3 The Quest (Odyssey)
    4 Voyage and Return (Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland)
    5 Comedy (Marriage of Figaro, loadsa Shakespeare)
    6 Tragedy (Hamlet, loadsamore Shakespeare)
    7 Rebirth (The Snow Queen, Peer Gynt)
    google for them. To me, a story is a story. Everything is a story. I don’t want to trouble myself with the analysis now. So, there.
    P.S. So, did the guy get the girl?

  2. Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan Says:

    Guy getting girl, girl getting guy, girl getting girl and guy getting guy are all variations of the same theme.
    As to the others, replace girl with riches and you have a rags to riches story.
    Replace girl with devil/monster/villain and add victory/conquest and you have the overcoming the devil story.

    Tragedy is guy not getting the girl or guy not getting the money or guy not getting his pound of flesh.

    Rebirth is something i think is different. thanks for that…

  3. Sushil J. Cherian Says:

    A very interesting post. Didnt think of it before in this way. The prior comment from Suman was pretty interesting as well.

  4. Aekta Says:

    It’s all maya.

  5. Docs Dope Says:

    what bt bdsm?

  6. Nilu Says:

    This is like the superman of analogies.

  7. Rajesh Says:

    Okai, lets assume, I get your point here.. but what i am interested is whether the ‘ever after’ part is happy…? ;)

  8. sat Says:

    All of them utimately obey Murphy’s Laws.

  9. curses Says:

    Rebirth = substitute “girl” with “another shot at life” :P

    anyways, I was wondering how the story of Lagaan wud fit in this analogy..

  10. Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan Says:

    conquest, victory, hero guy getting the runs and trophy and freedom and tax break, villain guy not getting the trophy and the tax money

  11. rivka Says:

    jsut dropped in while surfing…would just like to say I really enjoyed reading your blog!

  12. WA Says:

    Oh before you pull the plug on Sel Am please answer the question from Rajesh. So guy gets girl, guy gets guy, guy does not girl, whatever, but does anyone live happily ever after?

  13. Shankari Says:

    ‘ever after’ ??
    And whats all this abt re-birth. The story, if any, is about the birth- atleast for the women who give birth. Don’t frighten me about re-birth now :)

  14. guy gets girl Says:

    I agree with him Guy getting girl, girl getting guy, girl getting girl and guy getting guy are all variations of the same theme. They all lead to the same road

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