18 July 2006

9/11 Flying Carpets - More Notes

The 9/11 Flying Carpets and the Magic Jet Fuel from Aladdin’s Lamp (Part V continued.)

Procatalepsis. “A procatalepsis is a rhetorical figure or strategy in which the [script]writer raises an objection and then immediately answers it; by doing so, the writer seeks to strengthen his argument by dealing with possible objections before his audience can raise counter-arguments.”

Ever since 9/11 there have been many reports of terrorist activities in Al-anarkia. These reports are either fictitious, or the acts are engineered by Al-anarkia authorities for at least two reasons:

A procatalepsis to preempt the audience who might ask questions like, “why don’t the terrorist do something [else], are they on a strike? A religious holiday?”

As additional hooks (see notes on ‘Narrative Hook’ in Part III) to keep the audience on their toes.

Imagery is any literary reference to the five senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste). Essentially, imagery is a group of words that create a mental image. Such images can be created by using figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance.”

So the word 'terrorist' automatically projects in the mind of the audience one or more of the intended images [of 9/11] that have been televised over and over again, inducing an avalanche of reactions, especially subconscious.

Imagery is also the term used to refer to the creation (or re-creation) of any experience in the mind – auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic, organic. It is a cognitive process employed by most, if not all, humans. When thinking about a previous or upcoming event, people commonly use imagery.”

Equally, any reference to 9/11 plays a ‘parade of horribles’ with far-reaching consequences in the mind of the audience.

"Remembered Imagery is mostly based on what an individual has already experienced. People have a clear image of those ‘experienced’ things, which they can recall at will.”

Any reference to 9/11 [or to terrorism] falsely projects the image of the ‘Arab terrorists’ in the mind of the audience...

Imaginary imagery does not seem to have a corresponding equivalent in the real world -- often it is a strange combination of remembered images, or of remembered images mixed with confabulation.”

[Recommended reading: Confabulation, or the confusion of imagination with memory; false memories; Korsakoff's syndrome; induced confabulation and choice blindness, psychologist Petter Johansson’s experiment; Cognitive psychology]

Audience surrogate. “In the study of literature, an audience surrogate is a character who expresses the questions and confusion of the reader. It is a device frequently used in detective fiction and science fiction.“In detective fiction, the audience surrogate is usually a minor character that asks a central character how he or she accomplished certain deeds, for the purpose of inciting that character to explain (for the curious audience) his or her methods.

“In science fiction, the audience surrogate frequently takes the form of a child or other uninformed person, asking a relatively educated person to explain what amounts to the backstory.“In superhero comics, the audience surrogate is often the sidekick of the hero. The earliest example of this is Batman's sidekick, Robin, who was created specifically for this purpose.”

"A revealing line in mystery or science fiction stories is that after the author explains the backstory, the audience surrogate will frequently utter lines to the effect of: 'Well, when you put it that way, even I can understand!'"

In Al-anarkia, the audience surrogates are quadruplet:

Firstly, the ‘supervillain’ himself (the virtual surly genie Osama Ben Gurian) who explains everything to such minute details and with the de rigueur reserved for film scripts that even [rather especially] the ‘dumbest redneck’ in town could understand him;

Secondly, his numerous sidekicks who regularly appear on the media and make numerous statements about their ‘terror plots’;

Thirdly, the ‘quote whores’ (i.e., the journalists, news anchors, political analysts, ex-generals, the ubiquitous Israeli security 'experts' [without whom there would be no terrorists in the universes] …);

Fourthly, senior members of the Al-anarkia Administration.

MacGuffin. “A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story itself.”

“The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what object the MacGuffin specifically is. Anything that serves as a motivation will do. A true MacGuffin is essentially interchangeable. Its importance will generally be accepted completely by the story's characters, with minimal explanation. From the audience's perspective, the MacGuffin is not the point of the story.

“The technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Commonly, though not always, the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and then declines in significance as the struggles and motivations of the characters take center stage. Sometimes the MacGuffin is all but forgotten by the end of the film.

“Because a MacGuffin is, by definition, ultimately unimportant to the story, its use can test the suspension of disbelief of audiences. Well-done works will compensate for this, with a good story, interesting characters, talented acting/writing, and so on. Poorer works, which fail in those areas, often only highlight a MacGuffin, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. MacGuffins may be acceptable to the general audience, but fail to be believable for experts in the subject matter (such as a particular technology, or historical detail).”

The main MacGuffin used after the 9/11 events in Al-anarkia caliphate were the imaginary weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Source of quotes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

continued...





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