Inneresting 52
issue 52
May 21, 2021
The Big Picture on Cause and Effect
Fans of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories who can handle some too-close-to-reality speculative fiction should check out Survive the Century. You play the editor of the most influential media outlet in the world. Your choices on what stories to feature (and how to frame them) determine if humanity survives to the year 2100.
For some perspective to help make Earth-changing decisions, watch this talk from Hans Rosling, author of Factfulness, about how our perspective on statistics and trends is influenced by how far back we look and how we group and summarize information.
Shaping A Story Through Cause and Effect
Brett Lamb breaks down the basics of how filmmakers use cause and effect to drive story and engage the audience’s curiosity.
Film and Philosophy looks at the effect of playing with time, space, and perspective to change an audience’s understanding of cause and effect.
Leslie Watts weaves an analogy about the connection between successful competitive bakers and writers with a strong sense of cause and effect.
The Power to Cause Effects
Whether in real life or a story, how people attempt to direct the chain of cause and effect depends on what kinds of power they can wield.
John Bucher blogs about types of power to consider when looking at where your characters stand in a story.
Shannon Liao takes a broad look at Crazy Rich Asians and how the film’s writers shaped Rachel Chu as a dynamic character with real agency (even when out of her element). Jeff Yang takes a deep dive into the film’s climactic mahjong scene, pointing out the ways Rachel asserts her power and changes Eleanor Young’s opinion of her.
Visakan Veerasamy illustrates the power dynamics of Mean Girls, explaining how the construction of Cady and the high school’s world created a specific potential chain of cause and effect.
MobLab outlines types of group action, highlighting different ways people who lack individual power can leverage collective action.
Sally Blount presents three ways bosses wield power to drive change within their organizations.
Take a Look! It's in a Book!
Or it will be soon…
Following the 500th episode of Scriptnotes, we’ve started compiling the most helpful, entertaining, and quotable moments from the past ten years of podcasts for a written edition.
If you’d like to follow along with the process of creating this book and receive some sample chapters along the way, sign up for email updates!
Other Cool Things
In Scriptnotes Episode 501, John and Craig talk about the potential for critics to harm the growth of artists.
In the New York Times, Sarah Silverman sits down with A.O. Scott to talk about that same problem, and how his criticism of her work forced them both to change for the better.
Author Mary H.K. Choi speaks with The Creative Independent about maintaining a healthy creative metabolism.
Flawless demonstrates how their use of Deepfake technology could create more realistic movie dubbing.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
If you know someone else who might want to read this, please forward it to them. Thanks!
Come across something you think other readers will find inneresting? Reach out to Chris on Twitter @ccsont or email us at ask@johnaugust.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS
No events planned.
Stay home & stay safe.
ABOUT THIS EMAIL
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from the entire Quote-Unquote team. Subscribe here.
Links to Amazon may have referral codes from which we might generate tens of dollars.