On Writing - The Seven Basic Plots: Voyage and Return Part II

In this second discussion of the Voyage and Return plot type, we will look at the nature of the upside down world.
Voyage and Return Part I: • On Writing - The Seven...
Introduction to the Seven Basic Plots: • On Writing - The Seven...
Logos Made Flesh: • The Hidden Meaning of ...

[@nataliedokter8159]

Thanks for your hard work and well presented ideas. That was helpful!

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Thank you Natalie

[@darioswatchclub8]

10:46 Wow.... Tears dropped! 12:27 Deep and Fun! Thank you! I come from Story and Screenplay and play in a Week my First Real Guitar Gig. Micro and Macro.... The Smallest contains the Biggest, and Vice Versa! #fractals #triads 30:31 This is worth a Billion Bucks! THank you! 48:40 This is already a great Course!

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Haha thanks for the encouragement!

[@darioscomicschool1111]

Finally!

[@captainnolan5062]

The Minotaur = Human legs (i.e. walking upright, not on all fours like a bull), and the upper body of a bull (and he is a bully): in the Labyrinth (the Upside Down).

[@darioscomicschule1111]

You have a Magical Channel! Please make your Titles more desciptive so more people can find THIS GEM!

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Nice man thanks so much! I’m not good with marketing myself. What would you suggest for titles?

[@darioscomicschool1111]

@@justinsmorningcoffee Voyage and Return is cool...But KZbin does not know who to gives this Video Two. For who is it? (WRITING / SCREENWRITING/ MAJOR PLOT: Voyage and RETURN Part II.... ) If you need something you know WHAT it is, and where to get it. Your Channel is a massive Value Proposition, but it is for most people a White box, somewhere on the Shelf. Maybe not even on the Shelf. You put some KEYWORDS in, on the Next Search, your Video will pop up, or KZbin sees your KEYWORDS and will suggest your Videos. I guess that is how I found you. Or I typed in 7 Mayer Plots.

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Ahh okay I’ll try that!

[@roadtorockstar7848]

@@justinsmorningcoffee TRY THE SIMPLE STUFF, get to the CORE, what is your Video Essentially, who is it for? Is it for Moms? Is it Milk, Butter? TRY definetly "WRITING / SCREENPLAY: Seven Major Plots - Voyage and Return - In the Description #writing.... and than in the KEywords, Writing, Story, Storytelling... you will get good. The Quality is amazing. Once People find it, and Start watching it KZbin will recommend it more. But Voyane and Return Part II, and I have done the Same Mistakes... is nothing that someone would find. So go back to your Titles, as a SEARCHER / SEAKER and Rename them, if needed.

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Thanks so much for the advice. I do appreciate it.

[@Nikolay_Lebedev]

Hi Justin, thanks for the great video! One question though - what about Cast Away. What are the rules of the "unusual" world in Cast Away? It feels like none of the the rules you are talkin about in Voyage and Return Part II would apply for Cast Away or am I wrong? Neither nutrition, nor things/objects turned upside down or "small made large", etc. nor reversed social roles. So these rules appear not to be universal, or do they? Am I missing something in Cast Away?

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Hi Nikolay, you are right. You don’t want to start getting into the habit of looking for one to one correspondences in different movies. When you try to pin something down, it’s like taking a butterfly that flies around and dances in the sun out of its environment and pinning it to a wall. So don’t think of these as “rules” or “formulas” - think of them more like musical patterns, or motifs, sometimes (as in music) they are louder and sometimes they are softer. You have to take a step back and squint to see them. As far as Cast Away goes, I did some work on that in Voyage and Return part I: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqTMqp15g7iBo9ksi=6ujsIhPYjkOih0qZ Remember the “other world” is often juxtaposed against how you set up “this world” (and it’s quite often done in opposites or inversions)- so in Chuck’s world “time” is the end all and be all “do not allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time” he says. On the island what is the first thing that happens? His watch is broken - he’s “lost track of time” so to speak. Then, one by one, elements of his identity are broken down, (or “eaten” you might say, just as the body of the pilot he finds dead in the water is “eaten” by the island). As far as “small made large” - look at the way they portray fire on the island vs back home. There’s that great scene where he clicks the little tiny fire starter on and off, on and off, it’s so simple, so small in the civilized world. And compare that to when he builds a fire on the island - it a HUGE deal. As far as reversed social roles: you’ve got a volleyball taking on the roll of - wall what is the role of Wilson, exactly? Take a look at how Chuck interacts with people right before the crash. A man tells him that his wife has cancer and Chuck offers no condolences, there’s no connection. On the island he discusses intimate things with Wilson, despair, the nature of love and beauty… he’s somehow able to open up and be vulnerable with a volleyball but not with a human (until he’s changed). Or even look at the way Helen Hunt is represented in the island: Chuck tells Wilson - “she’s more beautiful in real life” as he’s looking at her photo - but just like the body of Albert, the photo fades, not unlike his memory of what she looked like. So you have the juxtaposition there too, she is in color, alive and beautiful on land whereas on the island she is two dimensional, flat, mute, and fading away on the island. You could also look at the two chucks the clean-cut, business oriented, super efficient Chuck in the beginning- and his “inversion” - the bearded, long haired, tan and grizzled Chuck of the island. There’s lots of old legends in mythology and religions around the world, that each of us has a “wild twin” who lives in the forest (another type of place associated with the underworld). Well in a way, Chuck embodies his “wild twin” or you could say, he gets in touch with his wild twin and integrates him while on the island. His tooth ache is symbolic of something along those lines. Everything that’s wrong with Chuck in the beginning is symbolized by that tooth - whatever it is that is “rotten” so to speak in his life. And so on the island what happens? The rotten part is “cleaved” away (something like that) - such that when he returns from the underworld, that rottenness (the tooth ache) is not gone, and in its place is whatever “nutrition”‘he’s eaten down in the underworld- what did he eat down there? “All that crab,” he says at one point. So the crab, the fish, the things that are down at the bottom of reality, symbolically contain that which he needs to properly “grow” you might say, into that which is higher. And what is “that which is higher” I’d say it is symbolized by the angels wings on the package. Haha sorry for the long rambling response!

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

*is NOW gone (typo)

[@Nikolay_Lebedev]

@@justinsmorningcoffee Hi Justin, thanks a lot for a long and comprehencive explanation. In your video and in your comment you gave a great deal to think of. I'm trying to write a book about a man who lives abroad and after many years comes back to his home country to help his mother to fight canser. But when he comes he realies that the country he once knew is no longer there, the country has drustically changed over years (and so has he, of course). So he needs to understand the new rules, learn to play by these rules and finally win by these rules. I clearly see my story as "jorney and return". I was looking for deteiles/insides on this plot type and your video complemented with the comment helped me greatly. Thanks again! (on my way to cover other videos on your channel)

[@raghavtantry6272]

What is the difference between a hero and a villain? ... What makes them different from each other and why in most of the stories the hero always wins? ... If I tell a story from the villains point of view then will that be a tragedy ??

[@justinsmorningcoffee]

Yes exactly! You could say a (Faustian) tragedy is an “overcoming the monster” story but from the point of view OF the monster. Now as for the difference between the protagonist and the antagonist: quite often it is a blind spot. The classic hero goes from “seeing in part” to “seeing whole” while the tragic hero (or the antagonist in many cases) will refuse to acknowledge the blind spot, and rather than re-assessing the situation, instead will “double down” on their previous assumptions, which lead to the tragic outcome.