43. Unity
If
the mind is a landscape, there is something just out of sight, beyond
my horizon.
There's a Dickens novel – have I seen it adapted for a film or on stage? – where the hero joins a theatrical company and is lectured on the unities.
The unities are the three principles of dramatic composition laid down
by Aristotle. He decided – deduced from experience,
perhaps? – that a successful narrative should consists of:
- one main action (vengeance, suicide, save the planet)
- one time (generally a single day)
- one place (a single location)
Does the TV drama 24 leap into your mind? The single action is, I suppose, save the city. Of course, it lasts a single day. And I remember thinking about how long the show must take to film – all those tricky intercut passages of TV time. Maybe six months? More? It could only be set in a place where the weather is unlikely to change from day to day and ruin the continuity.
The first time I heard of it, I thought of the Greek
audience of 2400 years past, assembling in the open amphitheatre
at dawn. Shivering. Then as the sun rises, it is a part of the action.
Prometheus is revealed chained to his rock. Soon the birds of prey will
come and tear his liver from his living flesh, as they do each morning.
I've never written according to precepts as tight as these, but
I admire their spirit, their coherence.
PS I'm sure it's Nicholas Nickleby, but I'll have to look it up now.
