Inneresting 78
issue 78
December 3rd, 2021
When Stories Take Us to New Places
Garson O’Toole digs into the origin of this famous storytelling axiom:
There are only two plots in all of literature:
1. A person goes on a journey.
2. A stranger comes to town.
For a deep dive into the tradition of the road movie, check out David Laderman’s book Driving Visions.
Stephen Kelman shares the story of his trip to Vienna with his wife that turned into an attempt to recreate moments from Before Sunrise.
Considering a trip to another world, a group of scientists built a climate simulation of Dune’s Arrakis to test if it was plausible (and habitable).
Sometimes you want to jump quickly to a new location, but other times...
Mapping the Route
While Casablanca is arguably the first film to travel by map on screen, one of the most famous uses of the technique comes from Indiana Jones.
For the nerdiest of nitpicks, Mark Simonson critiques the map typeface choices in the Indiana Jones films.
The Film Look’s video tutorial shows you how to make your own cinematic map flyover.
Scriptnotes: The Perfect Travel Companion
Whether you travel by plane, train, or automobile, it takes time getting from here to there — time that might be better spent with something engaging to listen to.
Consider adding Scriptnotes to your packing list.
Scriptnotes Premium subscribers get exclusive extra content with each episode, and can download any episode from previous seasons to their podcatcher of choice.
You can also purchase individual seasons for download.
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, the most clicked link from our last issue was all about risk compensation: Tim Requarth explains how a debunked study on seatbelt use created a misleading idea of how effective public policy is in changing behavior.
Other Cool Things
Cal Newport shares the story of the writing tower George Lucas built for himself where he wrote Star Wars.
Arthur C. Brooks suggests ways to counteract the dissonance between human brains wired for small groups and a modern internet that can connect nearly everyone.
An excerpt from Edward Dolnick’s book about the discovery and decoding of the Rosetta Stone.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
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