Formulas
For those who love just taking things as they come to them, and not thinking about things too much, here's a glimpse into my world for them.
I noticed today just how many people fall into the trap of formulising things. Take reviews for instance.Link
It all looks remarkably similar to the 'template' we follow for our short story critiques... Give our overall feeling of the piece, give a short synopsis with any background information, tell what was bad about the piece and suggestions of how to improve it, and then tell what was good about it. At the end, give an overall view on it.
Hmm...
Of course we can't go past the archetypical formula of the essay - outline your points, elaborate your points, sum up your points. This carries onto the spoken sermon/speech/oral presentation. It's amazing just how many important issues can be summed up in three main points... and often they'll amazingly all start with either the same letter, or their initials will spell a word. :-P
Lastly I'm left with the wonderful pop song. Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus/Verse. It's great for me as a drummer, cos I don't need to have heard a song to play along with it.
I guess in such a criteria-based world, there's comfort in a formula, within which we can't really stuff up too badly.
Anyway that's my little viewpoint for today. Farewell, hope you have fun.
-Fin-
I noticed today just how many people fall into the trap of formulising things. Take reviews for instance.Link
It all looks remarkably similar to the 'template' we follow for our short story critiques... Give our overall feeling of the piece, give a short synopsis with any background information, tell what was bad about the piece and suggestions of how to improve it, and then tell what was good about it. At the end, give an overall view on it.
Hmm...
Of course we can't go past the archetypical formula of the essay - outline your points, elaborate your points, sum up your points. This carries onto the spoken sermon/speech/oral presentation. It's amazing just how many important issues can be summed up in three main points... and often they'll amazingly all start with either the same letter, or their initials will spell a word. :-P
Lastly I'm left with the wonderful pop song. Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus/Verse. It's great for me as a drummer, cos I don't need to have heard a song to play along with it.
I guess in such a criteria-based world, there's comfort in a formula, within which we can't really stuff up too badly.
Anyway that's my little viewpoint for today. Farewell, hope you have fun.
-Fin-
posted by Luke at 6:27 PM
2 Comments:
Another view on why everything is superseded by a set 'function' on how to do it is that it works. As human beings we seem to learn from the past, we don't like re-inventing the wheel. If I see someone press a button to open the door, I don't want to waste time thinking up other ways to open the door, i follow his 'formula' and press the button in faith that the door will open, cause I saw it work for him. Similarly if writing a movie review according to a function worked for someone, if I'm going to do it, i'll copy it. I guess deep down we are all plagiarists ;)
Human beings survive by habit. Without it they would soon go insane (not exaggerating here, it's true). Even the most creative people live by habits, their habits are just more creative :-)
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