The Seven Basic Plots | Episode 69 | Everything is Everything

The specialisation of our species is storytelling -- and yet, some people say, we are really just telling the same stories again and again.

Welcome to Episode 69 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit discusses the classic book by Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots. Booker asserts that there are just seven storylines we recycle again and again -- and all of literature & Hollywood & Bollywood & Tollywood & Lollywood draw on these. What are they? Can there be more? Why should we never feel constrained as storytellers? What do Jaws, Sholay and the Russia-Ukraine war have in common?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00 Packaging
00:13 Intro: What Is That Orange Ball in the Sky?
03:31 Prologue: Finding the Tropes
11:22 Chapter 1: Overcoming the Monster
14:41 Chapter 2: Rags to Riches
18:40 Chapter 3: The Quest
24:05 Chapter 4: Voyage and Return
27:55 Chapter 5: Comedy
34:56 Chapter 6: Tragedy
40:38 Chapter 7: Rebirth
43:25 Chapter 8: A Tragic Ending to the Episode

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Produced by Amit Varma

[udayjajodia]

The sheer respect and stupendous envy I have for what they do, so effortlessly is crazy . I think they may have an idea of it but even observing the unsaid things throughout the conversation like seeing how keenly they listen when given or the way they articulate whatever they want to speak and many more is crazy to me. Legendary stuff fr

[tabishumaransari]

When I read the title, I assumed it's going to be Ajay telling us about how to make the 7 basic plots in Python.

[ivanganguly]

Lev Said - How much does a man require?, I say - Everything is Everything and The Seen and the Unseen!

[tsmkris]

Read this a long time ago and so some underlying patterns that may explain why the seven plots have this order. These story structures roughly follow our life arc. As a kid, we love "overcoming the monster" movies (Spiderman, Superman stuff) given the innocent certainty of a child though as we grow we see more nuances in these monsters (and many a times within us). In our teens, we are insecure and uncertain about being accepted and so want to overcome the likely ridicule that we are poor, not good looking, too weak, less knowledgeable etc. Hence the rags to riches structure appeals more to this age group though as we grow the kind of ridicule we face changes. In our youth, our goals become a little more clear and so story structures around the Quest make sense more (even romance feels like a pursuit or probably a teenage fantasy as in the rags to riches story!). By the time we hit the middle age, we see the irony in our lives and so learn to appreciate it with fresh eyes as an experience to be savoured, of a voyage and return story. As we age further but still a little away from old age, we see the comedy of it all. In old age, we have two choices...seeing life as a tragedy of errors or as a lesson to pass on the wisdom learnt to others. Hence we breathe our life into the lives of others...a kind of immortality gained through rebirth of our ideas and memory of a well lived life. I see a rough correlation of story structure to the life stage personas as well. If nothing else, it is a useful way to remember the seven plots.

[alexandery]

I don't know what is it about these 2 fellows I stop my work and listen to their conversations. Always very engaging.

[sanjaypadubidri]

Book recommendation: "A swim in a pond in the rain" by George Saunders. The book does an amazing job of analyzing seven wonderful short stories by Russian masters such as Tolstoy, Chekov and Gogol. Can't say the stories fit into the seven basic plots discussed here, but anybody who enjoyed this episode will surely enjoy the book.

[ashooshukla]

Hey guys! i think there is one more basic plot you could include. the five parts are: Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. I'll leave the title of this plot as an exercise for the reader

[vishweshji]

"Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!" - Fits the Overcoming the Monster (Indian State) trope :)

[sohamranadepersonal]

One of the best e.g. of Rags to Riches would be IMHO The Pursuit Of Happiness.

[ngxrjuz]

44 mins is too less. I wait the entire week for this, atleast 1.5 hours toh banta hai. Please?

[shashankprabhakar]

Just hearing the first few minutes, the book “The Hero with a thousand faces” by Joseph Campbell comes to mind!

[vinayrao]

To Ajay's question, the poignant and subtle comedy genre does exist. I'm reminded of "A man called Ove".

[theverbalindian]

✅ What an excellent topic ❤❤❤Love from WEST BENGALI ❤️❤️❤️ Thanks a lot.🙏🙏🙏

[sh]

I wonder if we could employ De Zwart’s framework to better understand the seven basic plots. In each story, there will be actions (intended, unintended) and consequences (anticipated, unanticipated).

[krishnaparthpandey]

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho- The Quest.

[tijbed]

Loved this episode! Reminded me of this beautiful lecture by Kurt Vonnegut called “The Shape of Stories”

[tanmay]

25:35 " Zindagi na milegi dobara"

[undsputedsaura]

this time i want to know the amits Outfit details! EIE team can i know the details? PLEASE