Sunday, March 2, 2008

193. Story within a Story

I recently wrote my monthly book review column, and included some blather about literary devices. One of the literary devices I wrote about was the "story within a story," which I loved in THE YEAR OF THE RAT.

Since writing that book review, though, I've been encountering this device everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The most recent was in the DVD of BIG FISH, which I wanted to watch because the screenplay is by John August, and I've been studying his blog for help.

Stop, please. No more stories within stories for at least a week, please! Please? Help.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm not at all fond of the story-within-a-story structure unless it's used as a frame for an entire book, e.g. the beginning is the intro to a book-long flashback and the ending is where the flashback meets the beginning. But, that said, it seems to have worked for hundreds of years!

writtenwyrdd