-l.

It’s more than 38 words.

I’ve heard that version sung at filk circles and seen a picture book of the complete thing (Possibly short one verse).

Mitch, I think you are exactly right. I think in fact that one of the reasons story is successful in giving meaning to people’s lives is precisely because it is entertaining, even silly, sometimes. Storytelling is not about someone trying to teach lessons; it’s about sharing experiences.

-l.

The thing about theme is that it has no meaning without the accompanying characters, setting, and other symbols. And to focus on any sort of “message” while you’re writing your story can actually make it come out mechanical and flat. Theme has to emerge from the story, not be imposed upon it. If that’s what you are saying, then you and I are in agreement.

But I find that when people are describing what moved them or grabbed them about a particular work, there was a “something” at the center of it all, and that something can usually be boiled down into something pretty basic about human nature and relationships.

-l.

Many people talk about the trade-off between entertainment and depth. Often you’ll hear it as an argument about the artistic value of a work versus the commercial value. The fact is, there is no intrinsic conflict between high entertainment value and depth of meaning.

Mel Brooks said many times that he wrote The Producers because he knew that the best way to fight Naziism in particular, and bigotry in general, was to belittle it.

And even childish comedies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, There’s Something About Mary, and Animal House work because they have complete stories as foundations for the gags. Virgin is about how a true heart can find true love–even if the true heart is in the body of a 40-year-old dork who rides a child’s bicycle to his job in electronics store every day. Mary is about how good character wins out over deceit and treachery (yeah, the gross-out jokes and childish humor in Mary is great, but what’s also great is the way that the story establishes that the Down’s syndrome brother freaks out if his ears are touched by anybody but someone he trusts, and how the hero, saying good-by at the end, casually plucks the headphones from the brother’s ear to do so.

1. Entertainment without meaning outsells meaning without entertainment, but neither sells nearly as well as entertainment with meaning.

Bingo.