Theme - The Journal Pulp

Posts from the ‘Theme’ Category

What Makes Certain Literature Timeless?
July 19th, 2012 | Universality | journalpulp | 10 Comments
“To produce a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.” Said Herman Melville. And it’s true: mighty themes are one of the distinguishing characteristics of timeless art. What is theme? In literature, theme is the meaning that the events of your story add up to. The events are the plot. Not all stories necessarily [...]
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David Lynch Or Quentin Tarantino?
October 14th, 2011 | Movies, Plot, Storytelling, Theme | journalpulp | 6 Comments
A reader writes: Dear Ray Harvey: Well, it took me five months but I finally finished reading More and More unto the Perfect Day and I wish to compliment you! Though it is a challenging and not easy read, it is rewarding and gives much food for thought to say the least. Your story reminded [...]
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Plot and Theme: A Complicated Relationship
September 6th, 2011 | Plot, Storytelling, The Situation, Theme, Universality | journalpulp | No Comments
The Situation is the nucleus of your story: it contains the kernel of your conflict from which the rest of your storyline will grow. A real story cannot exist without some sort of conflict. If you have a specific message that you wish to get across (e.g. the destructiveness of superstition), it is that message [...]
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Characterization (Part 3)
July 27th, 2011 | Characterization, Literature, Plot, Storytelling, Style, Theme | journalpulp | No Comments
Characterization is a presentation of the personality of the people who populate a story. Characterization is primarily a depiction of motivation and motive. The reader must understand what makes the characters act in the way that those characters do. It’s been said that one of the truest tests of good literature is when you can [...]
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Good Stories, Unoriginal Plots, Timeless Themes
July 14th, 2011 | Plot, Style, Theme | journalpulp | 4 Comments
There are 32 ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there’s only one plot: things are not what they seem. – Jim Thompson. Anthony Burgess was even more stringent: he put the number of possible plots at about five. So what distinguishes one plot from another? Or, to put that question [...]
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