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I am not sure that the archetypical detective or mystery story would fit easily into this framework, as there are two concurrent stories: the misleading one tha
by mannykannot 6y ago
I am not sure that the archetypical detective or mystery story would fit easily into this framework, as there are two concurrent stories: the misleading one that the author is stringing you along with, and the 'real' story as revealed in the denouement. The signature element of this style is that the 'facts' presented as part of the former are still there, but viewed differently, in the latter.
- m1gu3l 6y agoagreed, seems like there are story shapes yet to be discovered. i wonder what the graph of the hard-boiled detective story would look like given your description... the shape-shifter story shape?
- Kinrany 6y agoThe primary difference seems to be that a detective story does not have a protagonist: the reader does not know everything the main character knows.
- bonoboTP 6y agoTalking about detective stories and unusual narrative structures, I've really liked the American series 'Columbo' with Peter Falk while growing up. It's very popular in my country (Hungary, there's even a statue of him in Budapest), not sure about elsewhere. It turns the typical detective story to its head. You see the murder and who does it as the first thing in the episode. The rest is how the detective intuits it and then most importantly the psychological battle and clever tricks required to corner the murderer and prove it was him.
- keiferski 6y agoColumbo was pretty well-known in the nineties, so much so that it was referenced in contemporary hip hop songs as a byword for ‘cop’ or ‘detective.’ https://youtu.be/aaPQsYqNDnY https://youtu.be/aaPQsYqNDnY (NSFW, language)
- js8 6y agoMaybe Columbo has "From bad to worse" shape. The main protagonist isn't the detective, but the murderer. He starts badly - with a murder - and then it's downhill from there.
- smogcutter 6y ago“Oh, just one more thing...”