| The Plot Genie Contributor(s): Conoley, Gillian (Author) |
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ISBN: 1890650420 ISBN-13: 9781890650421 Publisher: Omnidawn OUR PRICE: $13.46 Product Type: Paperback Published: September 2009 Annotation: Inspired by "the plot genie"--a plot-generating device created in the 1930s that used numerical games of chance to divine character traits and plot points--this imaginative, book-length poem discusses the ways in which people are recreated, inspired, aroused, and persuaded by the power of the stories that they listen to and share. Rich in scene and cinematic quality, the plot--visual and literary, old and new--recombines into a simultaneous present, examining society's endless hunger for narrative. Exploring and blending genres with exciting and lyrical language, references to film and pop culture are laced throughout. Presenting a memorable cast in moving and humorous motifs, this rich composition explores the way the characters behave when inhabiting a construct created by ideas. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General - Poetry | Women Authors |
| Dewey: 811.54 |
| LCCN: 2009030471 |
| Physical Information: 0.4" H x 6.02" W x 9" (0.53 lbs) 136 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Plot Genie--in its momentum, imagistic vitality, and cinematic and often improvisational arc--resembles the movement of a film more than of a poetry collection. Rich in scene, spanning and recombining a wellspring of story--both visual and literary, old and new--into a simultaneous present, these poems also examine our culture's endless hunger for and production of narrative. The Plot Genie culls and questions what it is that holds any narrative together, and exposes some of the ways that characters behave and take shape when inhabiting a construct created by ideas. At its core, this collection looks at the ways in which we are recreated, inspired, aroused, and persuaded by the power of the stories that we listen to, tell each other, and find ourselves within, searching for human enchantment and meaning. The inspiration for this book is a plot-generating device created in the 1930s by an ex silent screenwriter, Wycliffe A. Hill. The original Plot Genie--used widely by Hollywood writers until the late 1950's--relied on a numerical game of chance, including a cardboard spinning wheel used to divine character traits and plot points. A murky underworld constantly created and recreated, peopled by hapless figures waiting to be dialed up and sent along multiple and fragmentary narratives, Gillian Conoley's THE PLOT GENIE includes characters of her own invention, contemporary film actors stripped of their veneer by the rapid, shape-shifting powers of the plot genie, and characters from other, older texts, such as Frankenstein. All are ruled by the insatiable plot genie, who herself becomes a character, a force neither fully in charge nor culpable, much like our leaders or guides today. In the plot genie's world, as in ours, the demands put upon characters by the plots in which they participate can be very high, and very hard to appease. |