April 17th, 2009 / 4:53 pm
Random

Youtube teaches me something else about writing: The goomba’s point of view

Here’s a nice, radical shift in the perspective of a story. There’s a guy trying to save a princess. The princess was kidnapped by a tyrant as part of his scheme to control a kingdom. The tyrant has minions. The minions stand between the guy and the princess. The guy is the natural focus of the narrative.

But in this video, a relatively minor character in what we might call the ur-narrative is instead the focus.

Is it as exciting as the traditional, Mario-focused way of telling the story? No, probably not. But it still has a kind of driving tension. You can HEAR Mario’s approach. You know the two goomba’s are done for, which adds a tension to the subtext of their mundane March Back and Forth, Bounce Off the Pipes and Each Other existence. Something sort of interesting is going on here.

So, for homework, write a story from the perspective of someone relatively minor to the story’s ur-narrative.

TANGENT:

According to Urban Dictionary, “goomba” is a slang term for Italian Americans. Cher used to call Sonny Bono a goombah. Being that Mario is a self-identifying Italian American, and Mario spends most of his time stomping on goombas, can we read Super Mario Bros. et al as an allegory for assimilating into a mass culture? Mario must stomp on his personal “goombas” to fit in and get the girl?

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24 Comments

  1. Nathan Tyree

      There is almost pathos here

  2. Nathan Tyree

      There is almost pathos here

  3. pr

      I immediately thought of Par Lagerkvist. He wrote The Dwarf- totall genuis book- about a court dwarf who thinks he’s more important than he is, but then oddly, becomes so ( I gotta reread it, it’s been a decade). He also wrote Barrabas- about the guy set free instead of Jesus. So he was all about the outsider of the ur-narrative. Neat.
      It’s an excellent idea for a prompt or exersize. Love it.

  4. pr

      I immediately thought of Par Lagerkvist. He wrote The Dwarf- totall genuis book- about a court dwarf who thinks he’s more important than he is, but then oddly, becomes so ( I gotta reread it, it’s been a decade). He also wrote Barrabas- about the guy set free instead of Jesus. So he was all about the outsider of the ur-narrative. Neat.
      It’s an excellent idea for a prompt or exersize. Love it.

  5. Jimmy Chen

      matthew: you should be htmlg’s official ‘curator’ of literary lessons from youtube. these are great.

  6. Jimmy Chen

      matthew: you should be htmlg’s official ‘curator’ of literary lessons from youtube. these are great.

  7. Ken Baumann

      You post pretty.

  8. Ken Baumann

      You post pretty.

  9. audri

      not to mention the only career option available to mario and luigi, as immigrants, happened to be plumbing.

  10. audri

      not to mention the only career option available to mario and luigi, as immigrants, happened to be plumbing.

  11. KevinS

      Not as good without Gary Coleman.

  12. KevinS

      Not as good without Gary Coleman.

  13. davidpeak

      I want Matt Bell to write the story of this video.

  14. davidpeak

      I want Matt Bell to write the story of this video.

  15. Shya

      Matthew, you’ve turned into my favorite GIANT contributor. I mean, in one sense, you’ve always been my favorite contributor, but now you occupy that position in more than one sense.

  16. Shya

      Matthew, you’ve turned into my favorite GIANT contributor. I mean, in one sense, you’ve always been my favorite contributor, but now you occupy that position in more than one sense.

  17. Matthew Simmons

      You loves me.

      I loveses you, too.

  18. Matthew Simmons

      You loves me.

      I loveses you, too.

  19. Catherine Lacey

      I agree with Shya. I like you more than myself, even.

  20. Catherine Lacey

      I agree with Shya. I like you more than myself, even.

  21. michael j

      haaaaaaa

  22. michael j

      haaaaaaa

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