More and more this has moved to a kind of meta level I think, where not only do they know that we will recognise the location and characters, but sometimes they use it to skip scenes - we know they will have an argument, we know that that guy is dead etc Depending on the film/book whatever and its level of sophistication, they expect you to fill in bigger and (seemingly) less obvious gaps. But surely anything of that nature does depend on acknowledging that however modern or whatever the film is, some bits are - effectively - cliches that you can skip through yourself. Maybe more charitably they are fast forwarding through the obvious bits so they can concentrate on truly new stuff, I dunno.Film and television especially use this shorthand to avoid exposition. They rely on our prior knowledge and experience.
I remember reading a sort of speculative essay by Kim Newman the film critic about whether it was possible that Dracula was in fact the person (vampire) responsible for the ripper murders. Did the times match up, was the method of killing plausible etc? I think this kind of thinking that inspired him to write a sort of alternative world Victorian vampire story - although that wasn't at all the plot of what emerged.Victorian Britain and its fantastic steampunk counterpart. Gas lamps. Horse and carriage. Fog of course. Industry. Jack the Ripper.
Victorian Britain and its fantastic steampunk counterpart. Gas lamps. Horse and carriage. Fog of course. Industry. Jack the Ripper.
Mulatto able seamen etc in fact I remember one of the Swallows and Amazons books (which I LOVED as a child) called something like Missee Lee an (almost certainly massively racist) story in which they get mixed up with some kind of Chinese pirate lady thing.Malay deckhands. South sea islanders.
Hmm, I wonder what was metafictional about it? I must have missed that when I was seven.Missee Lee is the tenth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, set in 1930s China. The Swallows and Amazons are on a round-the-world trip with Captain Flint aboard the schooner Wild Cat. After the Wild Cat sinks, they escape in the boats Swallow and Amazon, but are separated in a storm. Both dinghies eventually end up in the lair of the Three Island pirates—Chang, Woo and Lee—where they are held prisoner by the unusual Missee Lee, the leader of the Three Island pirates.
The book, published in 1941, is considered one of the metafictional books in the series, along with Peter Duck and perhaps Great Northern?
I've seen Nashville and McCabe and Mrs Miller, not sure about 3 Women.. I will have to double-check.Good post rich. It made me think of robert altman, with what you were saying about the overlapping dialogue and so on. You might enjoy 3 women if you have not already seen it. Everyone sez nashville is his best film but i thought it was crap. Mccabe and mrs miller and the long goodbye also very good. In fact, it strikes me you might very much like the detective in long goodbye, he seems like you.