Perils of Pandora, Part II: How James Cameron Might Still Set Things Right
== Civilization (automatically) has to suck! ==
Let’s make this even more general. Most Hollywood films (and nearly all dramatic novels) share one central tenet: society doesn’t work.
It seems an almost-biblical injunction.
“Thou shalt never show democratic-western civilization functioning well. Especially, its institutions must never be of any help solving the protagonist’s problems.”
In The Idiot Plot: Why Film and Fiction Routinely Depict Society and its Citizens as Fools, I describe a core reason for this relentlessly consistent rule. But here’s the short of it: Your job as a storyteller, above all, is to get the audience rooting for your heroes by keeping them in pulse-pounding jeopardy for 90 minutes of film — or 500 pages of a novel — and that central chore is easiest to achieve if you make sure they never get any useful help from boring professionals.
Suppose our movie’s protagonist, the poor schlemiel who stumbles upon a terrible danger-scenario in scene one, were to dial 9-1-1 for help… and help came! Skilled pros rushing in, taking charge, doing their jobs well and honestly, saying “we’ll take it from here, sir.”
More: CONTRARY BRIN: Perils of Pandora, Part II: How James Cameron Might Still Set Things Right