The Anatomy of Genres by John Truby

Author:John Truby
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Picador

Comedy Mind-Action Story View

Along with Myth, Comedy may be the oldest recognizable story form. Yet in the evolution of genres as expressions of the human mind in Action, Comedy is a relatively late form. Why? It shows humans in a well-established society.

The Comedy Mind-Action story view is about the flaws of the mind, people acting badly, and the inequities of the social system. If Science Fiction is about how society works, Comedy is about how society doesn’t work. It’s about how people screw up.

Comedy is the story form of practical morality. It shows us that day-to-day morality is never pure or clean. Practical morality is always filled with conflict.

Comedy has a specific tone, story structure, and philosophy. The comic tone begins with obsession: passion for the goal, the chase, and the fight. Comedy heightens the intensity of the individual’s desire to such a degree that it becomes absurd.

To get the goal, the character projects a facade, a lie about herself. She exhibits pretense by putting herself up on a pedestal. Comedy pushes the projection of the mind further than any other genre except Fantasy. The difference between the projected self, the ideal, versus the real, is extreme.

Ironically, instead of making her more successful in society, the character’s facade only increases her isolation. The Comedy story structure then tracks the beats that take the hero(es) from isolation to marriage and communion.

This process is mirrored in the overall story strategy of Comedy: tear down the facades the hero has put up to succeed in work and romance.

The deeper theme of comedy, which is tolerance, is also expressed through tone and structure. While the characters are obsessed with getting the goal, the subtext of the comic tone is the reverse of obsession. By being so over-the-top, Comedy suggests that no matter how bad things seem to be, everything will work out in the end. This story form uses a double attack: it makes fun of the belief as well as the intensity of the belief.

The Comedy philosophy of life is one of the most unique of all genres. Negatively, it believes that:

Individuals are part of a larger social whole but are mostly unaware of how everyone is affecting them.

Everyone is a collection of roles. We have a true self and a true value, but also a public image that we project to gain power and popularity.

What people strive for is relatively silly and not nearly as valuable as we think at the time.

People are often incompetent in their actions.

Action often does not lead to success and occasionally leads to the opposite of what the person intended (this is the definition of irony).

People only think they learn. Actually, they remain the same and repeat the same mistakes throughout their lives.

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