Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Plots, Plots, Plots--You Know, The Stuff That Happens In A Story

I wanted to throw this out as a discussion question--what fictional plot setup makes you dash to the nearest library checkout or bookstore register? What's a fictional must read for you?

I will automatically try to read two setups--caper tales and bands. Capers are usually mostly men, mostly well dressed and usually very smart, committing fraud and theft. Yes, I find that exciting. Sexy even. Hey, I like sharp guys with elaborate justifications for trespassing over the boundaries of polite society. I was a Daddy's girl.

The love of band tales is odder--I have no musical training or talent, I hate to travel, and I have never really experienced the joy of creative group work (although audit work is kind of close). But I love stories about musical groups--the stress, the music, the bickering, the near familial ties. Go figure.

3 comments:

drwende said...

You need to date bond traders: well-dressed, total charmers, and ethics that stop just short of indictment.

It's precisely the people without the performing arts background who find that life glamorous and fascinating, same as academic mysteries mostly aren't read by Ph.D.'s and I'm losing patience with financial mysteries the longer I work in the field. When it's your own world, the elements the general public wants to hear about are precisely the parts you feel no desire to discuss.

I'd read a nice book about a heroic auditor, though. I'm a sucker for stories in which an interesting character of depth wades in and solves problems. Solving problems is important: I hate the sort of book that concludes that everything is futile and we should treasure the dullness of ordinary life (so my tolerance for Barbara Pym is quite limited).

Kerry said...

After 2 years in high school drama, I figured out my options for climbing the ranks were limited and rehearsal was the most boring thing in the world. So yes, I know I'm not really missing anything.

Audit comes out Friday, and I am moving to Corrections. I'll give you the scoop. But auditors don't actually fix things--we just tell people what's wrong and that they have to be fixed and sometimes how to do it. Seriously, if I wanted to fix others' mistakes, I'd go back to the library world where if you point out inefficiency and problems it's apparently your problem to fix.

drwende said...

Yeah, but if you were a novel heroine, the central problem of the novel could be how to get to the truth on some particularly pesky and obscure piece of data. That would be sufficient problem-solving to keep me busy and out of trouble.