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> Kurt Vonnegut once said that there are only six types of story. I see others quoting this here, but I'm not aware of Vonnegut actually saying this anywhere.
by bmitc 5y ago
> Kurt Vonnegut once said that there are only six types of story.
I see others quoting this here, but I'm not aware of Vonnegut actually saying this anywhere. This is the type of thing that needs a reference.
If I infer using what I know of Vonnegut and his presentations on the shapes of stories, I'd wager that he simply thought many stories fit into certain shapes but that not all stories fit into these. That is, there are stories that don't have well defined or common shapes. Plus, as we all know, Vonnegut liked to have fun. I highly doubt Vonnegut ever thought there were only <x> amount of story shapes.
- jb1991 5y agoI’ve seen a video of him giving a talk or a lecture where he discussed this, but the ideas were at an extraordinarily high-level and in part he was going for comedic affect with the audience.
- bmitc 5y agoThat's what I meant by presentations of his shapes of stories. There are a couple of lectures posted on YouTube. https://youtu.be/oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://youtu.be/oP3c1h8v2ZQ https://youtu.be/GOGru_4z1Vc https://youtu.be/GOGru_4z1Vc The thinking originated in his (rejected) master's thesis at the University of Chicago. Here are some photos of some of the graphs: https://capnmariam.tumblr.com/post/76564658108/kurt-vonnegut-library-adventures-newish-exhibits https://capnmariam.tumblr.com/post/76564658108/kurt-vonnegut... Even there, in an incomplete copy, there are seven unique story shapes. And there's a major difference between saying here are some shapes of some stories and here are the only story shapes.