'Narrativism: Story now' essay comments

[M. J. Young]

Since never having seen Jaws I had to go to Google to determine the source of that familiar quote, I'd say that's exactly right.

--M. J. Young

[Ian Charvill]

I think it's important to stress that pastiche is stylistic imitation and not just quoting.  To pastiche the X-Files it wouldn't be enough to have an FBI agent who investigates the supernatural.  You'd have to use stylistic elements - the colour pallette, the anywhere North America anonymity of the urban locations, the torches in the darkness sequences, the skeptic/believer dialectic, the referencing of urban myths/pop conspiracy theory/classic horror movies, and so on.  And if you have enough of those elements you don't need the FBI agent - or the supernatural - to have the pastiche.

"We need a bigger boat" is a quote - "We need bigger guns" is Split Second pastiching Jaws.

Now obviously, if you copy enough content, you'll start to pick up stylistic elements as well.  Too, pastiche need to be above a certain - and probably audience dependent - threshold or you merely have influence.

But this is The Arts folks - anyone looking to nail an absolute definition of this down is going to end up unhappy.

[W. Don]

But this is The Arts folks - anyone looking to nail an absolute definition of this down is going to end up unhappy.

I second that. The discussion has been quite enlightening, though, I must say. I don't have anything more to add.

- W.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

"We need a bigger boat" is a quote - "We need bigger guns" is Split Second pastiching Jaws.

I don't see that at all.

But this is The Arts folks - anyone looking to nail an absolute definition of this down is going to end up unhappy.

Ah, that seems to be it. With this and the example above I'm going to file pastiche under eye of the beholder and will now drop out of the discussion.

Thanks.

[Ian Charvill]

Jack - for what it's worth w/r/t your comments about dropping out.

Both lines are said by cops in response to seeing a monster.  Both are darkly comical observations about being ill prepared for facing the monster, which act as tension relievers.  Both take similar gramatical forms.  Therefore I'd argue that the Split Second line is a direct stylistic imitation of the Jaws.

The reason I'd rule out quoting as a form of pastiche is because it would make the term pastiche so wide as to be meaningless.