Words Mean Things — Page 4

Chewtobacca said:

TheBoost said: Gandalf and the Cavalry saving the day in "The Two Towers" is not a Deus Ex Machina because Gandalf left in act two to go find the characters they met in act one, to come back and save the day.

You are correct in your definition of deus ex machina.  An example in LOTR would be the Eagles coming to the rescue unlooked for at the end, as they did in The Hobbit. 

 Yeah, and the Tolk pulled that one twice. What a deus ex machanic.

Davnes007 said:

xhonzi said:

Hmmm...,  I think there's a heavy dose of hyperbole in that expression, but the presumed superlative (the artist) may not be the point.  Shirley, the sentence does make sense as far as I can tell, no matter whether you use "a" or "the"... But, hey, what do I know?

Fixed. ;)

You should be less curt, and maybe more amiable.

The last thing we need is more Curt.

Reading TV Tropes inspired me to pull this thread out of the mothballs.

CHEKHOV'S GUN

The writer Tony Chekhov famously said that if a gun is placed on the mantle and it's NOT fired by act three, why was it placed on the mantle? He was commenting in his autobiography about the importance of not introducing elements to a story that serve no function.

If you come across this term in critical discussions of art it usually is used to mean one of three things.

1. Something that happened before is refrenced again or a character and situation that appeared earlier reappears. 
   "Having Spike come back on the Buffy series after his initial character arc was complete is such a great example of Chekhov's Gun!" 
   
   
2. A plot point that will be important later is introduced. This is a stupid use of the term because every plot point has to be introduced at some part of the story before it becomes important.
   "Ben giving Luke a lightsaber is such a Chekhov's gun moment, because we know at some point Luke is going to use it!"
3. Someone makes a prediction for how a story wil play out, and it plays out differently, prompting the predictor to slam the artist for having "Chekhov's guns not firing."
   "Dumbledore being really dead is so lame because --INSERT ELABORATE SERIES OF CLUES GLEANED FROM THE FIRST SIX BOOKS HERE-- and obviously JK Rowlings have never heard of Chekhov's gun!"

There might be more valid uses for it, which would be commenting on plot points introduced that don't directly pay off, but since Chekhov meant his comment to be used in the crafting of a story, not in the analysis of one, using this term seems like a dismissal of analysis instead of serving any actual function.

"The sorority house mother with the drinking problem in "Black Christmas" never paid off. She was killed, but she wasn't drunk at the time, so her drinking was superfluous"

"Sir, I would argue that her drinking problem was an interesting character bit that helped set the overall mood of the film."

"No! It's a Chekhov's Gun that wasn't fired!! So there!! Chekhov Chekhov Chekhov!!"

I propose that the term has been rendered meaningless for use in critique both by misuse and by its original intent, and should be striken from the record. In all cases there are perfectly acceptable substitutes with clearer meanings.

Tony Chekhov?

Sluggo said:

Tony Chekhov?

 Only to his best mates.

Not true.  He used it on the falcon.

He used it to take his first steps into a larger world.

xhonzi said:

You don't think Luke's receiving of the lightsabre is a Chekhov's gun?  He doesn't get to use it until the sequel, for crying outloud!

You misunderstand me. I don't think anything is a Chekhov's gun. I think the term is useless.

(although interestingly, according to Tone Chekhov himself, since Luke's lightsaber is never used in "Star Wars" he should not have received it at all)

A prime example of self conscious Chekhovian Gunnage was the pretty dire Babylon 5 episode Grey 17 Is Missing.

Kudos to JMS for actually making it a gun though.

xhonzi said:

He might have held it while it was on, but he hardly used it.

I miss Michael Scott :-(

Whatever happened to the word "TheBoost?"

I believe he is recording some kind of music called hippityhoppity with an ensemble called TheBoostieBoys.

Disabled Toilet.

Yeah, where is that Boost guy, I've never met him.

I like this thread.

Words like "amazing", "fantastic", "awesome", "awful", "terrible", "incredible", et al. used to actually mean different things! Go figure. "Amazing" once meant "causing amazement." "Fantastic" was used to describe something that seemed more fantasy than real life. "Awesome" and "awful" used to be synonyms, meaning "full of awe." "Terrible" things once inspired terror. Now they have been reduced to mean "bad." "Incredible" formerly meant "not credible" rather than "cool" which has also lost former connotations.

I could call something terrible, meaning that it was very scary, but since the word has lost its meaning it would not have the same effect, so I have to use a phrase rather than a single word to describe the silly thing.