campbell

...we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labrynth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shal slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world. (Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 25)

olsen

For Vito, montage isn't a formalistic technique. Continuity determined by the symbolic assocation of ideas between shots rather than literal connections in time and space is a philosophical principle. Vito believes living is nothing if not a series of dissolves, superimpositions, odd juxtapositions, and unexpected cuts. (Lance Olsen, 10:01, pp. 17-18)

She is drifting in the soothing amniotic awareness that everyone around her is part of a much larger project han he or she suspects. This is because the cosmos, Trudi trusts, only appears chaotic, but is in reality an orderly place marked by harmony, synchronicity, and cooperation. All you have to do is look. All you have to do is pay attention. (Lance Olsen, 10:01, p. 21)

Celan is not especially into narrative, not especially into character, and he feels pretty much anyone can tell one of the nine extant plots in the world. The trick for Celan Solen is always the how and the why of the telling. What he is concerned with is the mind in motion as it is disclosed by celluloid. ((Lance Olsen, 10:01, p. 41)

olsen

Carefully follow what most handbooks on writing fictional tell you, and chances are you'll end up producing a nice, tight, well-crafted story that could have been produced just as easily in 1830.

You'll end up producing a story where language is transparent and fictive focus falls on your protagonist's psychology. Your character will be rounded, resonant, believable, and usually middle or lower-middle class. Your setting will probably be urban or suburban and rendered with the precision of a photograph. The form of your story will be so predictable as to be virtually invisible: it will have a beginning, a muddle, and an ending thorugh which your rounded resonant character will travel in a fairly limited amount of strictly structured chronological time in order to learn something about himself, herself, or his or her relationship to society or nature.

(Lance Olsen, Rebel Yell: A Short Guide to Fiction Writing, p. 3)

american psychiatric association

autistic fantasy The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human relationships, more effective action, or problem solving.

humor The individual deals with emotional conflict or external stressors by emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the conflict or stressor.

intellectualization The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by the excessive use of abstract thinking or the making of generalizations to control or minimize disturbing feelings.

reaction formation The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by substituting behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are diametrically opposed to his or her own unacceptable thoughts or feelings (this usually occurs in conjunction with their repression.

(American Psychiatric Assocation, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision [DSM-IV-TR], pp. 811-813)

smith

"It's not better to die. Who wants to die? Everthing struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way." (Betty Smith, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," p. 95)