February 6th, 2010 chris
I have heard very often that the critical event of the 20th century was World War I, and to find out the consequences of that, I read Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. And while that does an excellent job of describing the aftermath of World War I, I found myself wanting more with respect to how the Russian tsars fell. So when I saw Rasputin’s face staring me down at the local Borders, I knew I had to pick it up and see what was really going on and the role the enigmatic Rasputin played in it.
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November 27th, 2009 chris
Previously we discussed a critical storytelling element: the power of characterisation. It seems to me as though books are the best medium for character development, and there seems to be something about the medium that really makes it stand out here. Fundamentally, it’s tied to how long the reader is engaged with the material. The typical moviegoer’s attention is fixed for two to three hours on average, while someone reading a book tends to focus their attention for much longer. Thus with the extra time, books can really develop their characters in a superior fashion. By the same logic, a television series also has great potential to develop and strengthen its characters over time, since the TV series also has ample time to engage its viewer. But while characterisation is an important storytelling element, I feel like we beat that point into the ground last time. This time, I want to talk about a different key storytelling element: immersion.
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