Monday, August 01, 2005
The Seduction of Style:
Ah, the purity and essence of style... Slippery to define and elusive to contain within rigid boundaries. Always shifting and open to the winds of innovation. Paradoxically mysterious and lucid at the same time... There is definitely something about style. Something that is meant to seduce.
In storytelling, style is the particular way in which a story is told. Style exists to make things more aesthetically pleasant and harmonious, or more fluid and efficient, or more interesting and exciting, and generally easier to process. Here, style is the storyteller's way to improve communication. A particular style makes the story more available to a particular target audience. It is the ultimate seduction.
It would be silly to claim that there are rigid rules the storyteller must follow in this regard, but then again it would be even more ridiculous to say that there aren't certain elements of style that seem to have consistency in improving the quality of a story. By noting some of these consistencies it is possible to establish a few guidelines for a more seductive style.
When I think about style, for some reason one of the first things that come to my mind is Erich von Stroheim's performance as a WWI German officer in Jean Renoir's film "The Grand Illusion". Stroheim's character, Captain von Raufferstein, is an impeccable gentleman with a code of strictness about him that is only equaled by the aura of his nobility and humanism. It is his circumstances -- having to wear a neck cast because of a battle injury that has reduced him from an illustrious pilot to a warden running a POW camp for enemy officers -- and the way he carries himself despite it all that truly reveal who he is. The compassion with which this character is portrayed is what makes him memorable, unique and emotionally resonant.
Or, take Alfred Hitchcock, and his signature blend of anxiety and humor which stands out in the direction of his movies. Or his sometimes subversively dark sense of humor, which somehow manages to escape being cynical and remain optimistic in its regard of human nature. His exploration of our voyeuristic compulsions. His particular predilection for cold blonds who burn with repressed passions underneath the surface in his choice for leading ladies. The precision of the visuals. His trademark approach of submerging us in a nightmare, from which he would wake us up in the end. The suaveness and glamour of the characters. The slipperiness of the villains... and the darkness they dwell in. The structural perfection of his films...
Or, Vladimir Nabokov, and the light-on-its-feet feel and flow of his prose. The subtle sophistication and subversiveness of his humor. The brilliance of his command of the language...
Or, Stanley Kubrick's measured cinematic pace. His exactness. The dark pervading sarcasm, that never fails to achieve an atmosphere of outrageous hilarity. The anti-hero qualities of the protagonists. The immaculate structure of the storylines. The astonishing clarity of his vision as a filmmaker...
Or, Jane Austen's acute sense for melodrama. Her signature wit. Her fairy tale sensibilities. The trademark intelligence of her heroines and their emotional wisdom. Her fascination with men who conceal much about them under the surface. Men who are capable of choosing unpopularity in order to uphold higher moral principles...
Or, Steven Spielberg's hopeful view of humanity. His love of all things adventurous and amazing. His unparalleled sense of "what if?". The universality of his story sensibilities and the power of his visions. The scope of his movies. His humanity. His sense of fun and excitement. His precision and clarity. His refreshing lack of cynicism...
Or, the prevalent aesthetic of cynicism and dark view of humanity in David Fincher's movies. His sense of the oppressive and the traumatic. His exploration of the fears and the aberrant within us. The complexity of his visuals and their potency...
Or, Homer's acute sense of drama and unparalleled understanding of the human emotional makeup. His detached objectivity as a narrator. His blending of drama with comedy, fantasy with brutal realism, darkness with light, the savage with the noble in our nature. The purity of his observations of the human condition. The simplicity and clarity of his language. The epic scope of his stories...
Or, Alexandre Dumas's undisputed mastery of the novel of intrigue...
Or, Billy Wilder and I.O.L. Diamond's trademark distillation of the sour and the sweet in life in their romantic comedies. The signature brilliance and wit of their dialog. The comedic quirkiness of their characterizations...
Or, the bleakness and paranoia mixed in with tongue-in-cheek black comedy in Roman Polanski's psychological and neo-noir thrillers...
Or, the pervading aesthetic of voyeurism, and the exploration of obsession, irrational fears and psychological detours in Brian De Palma's cinematic thrillers...
Or, the underlying humanistic outlook and kind understanding of human struggles in Frank Capra's gentle comedies...
There is a classic little book called "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E.B. White, which probably sits on the desk of every editor of every publication in English. If it doesn't, it should. It contains some essential insight on grammatic rules and clarity of expression. It is lean and it is mean. As you read it, if you listen hard enough you will sometimes swear that you can hear the squeak of brand new leather boots and the occasional sound of a whip cutting through the air...
It is from Strunk and White's manual that I have drawn inspiration in outlining the following guidelines for what constitutes a more seductive storytelling style. I find that rules of language grammar have interesting parallels in storytelling grammar, and that lucid style of expression is subject to the same principles both in the construction of a single sentence and the communication of an entire story regardless of its medium.
Great storytellers are masters of the art of audience seduction. They are aware of the particular style they have chosen for the task as well as of the accessibility of their target audience. Styles vary with various types of stories and audiences, but there are certain stylistic elements all good storytellers look to establish in their communication as a given.
In the creation of a story, capable storytellers choose a clear structural design to follow. Using individual scenes for building blocks they construct the story within a well-defined structure. It isn't really a big secret: structure gives the story a concrete shape and makes it easier to process by the audience.
The crafty storyteller is well aware of the importance of interconnectedness between the story building blocks. A scene has to lead up to the next scene somehow. The internal logic of the story must be uninterrupted, or if it is, it has to be done for a particular effect.
Following this logic, the engaging storyteller will keep the most important story development point in a scene for its end. That way the audience has something to look forward to -- the denouement of that story point in upcoming scenes.
Once a story point is made, wise storytellers won't make it again -- unless it is entirely necessary. Redundant storytellers shoot themselves in the foot. By being redundant, they show little respect for the audience and can't expect to be respected in return.
Powerful storytellers are never patronizing. They don't explain too much, instead they allow the audience to put two and two together. This way the audience feels compelled to keep up with the story.
By allowing the story to unfold through a series of direct character actions and interactions the storyteller achieves dramatic tension. The story becomes more forcefully engaging and emotionally resonant.
Intuitive storytellers go for broke. Strunk and White proclaim: "Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommital language". In other words, tell the story as confidently as possible. After all, style is primarily about projecting confidence. Being timid and undecided spells the storyteller's doom. Never hesitate, unless of course that is the intentionally chosen style for a particular effect. General rule of thumb: wherever there is timidness there is mediocrity.
According to Strunk and White, being "specific, definite, and concrete" makes for lucid style. Vivid storytellers are logical, clear and strive to eliminate confusion by being specific. They evoke specific images in our minds.
Wise storytellers are economical and to the point. They give us just enough and never too much. They avoid the unnecessary. They serve their story lean, mean and light on its feet. Less once again turns out to be more. Meandering only causes us to lose sight.
Clever storytellers appreciate the benefits of consistency and prefer the tried and true ways of communicating something to the experimental and unproven ones. They look to express similar ideas in similar ways. Strunk and White intone: "The likeness of form enables the reader to recognize more readily the likeness of content and function." Hence all the different genres out there.
Truly powerful storytellers draw attention to the characters in the story and away from themselves. They are simply the detached observers allowing the story to unfold on its own.
Finally, the best storytellers always choose the way of simplicity over the way of elaboration. The easiest and most natural way to communicate something is usually the best way.
