Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00There are two kinds of people, my friend.
00:03Why do you live?
00:07The common desert voles.
00:08For centuries, scientists have exploited them.
00:11This Sunday, the revolution will be televised.
00:16We've bred these voles for maximum aggression.
00:21Outstanding.
00:23What's your name, son?
00:25Ah, you'll make a fine little soldier.
00:28This facility is sitting on a magma chamber the size of Rhode Island.
00:32I didn't get to be a six-star general by listening to nerds.
00:39Everybody run!
00:41Volcano, it's gonna blow.
00:51This is going to be the best thing that's ever happened to me.
00:55Dear Tim and Moby,
00:57I'm supposed to pick a summer reading list in my favorite genre,
01:01but I don't even know what that is.
01:03Can you help?
01:04From Emma.
01:05Hi, Emma.
01:07Before putting down a single word,
01:09writers have to make all kinds of choices.
01:13Should they write poetry or prose?
01:15Fiction or non-fiction?
01:17Should it be a novel, a play, a short story?
01:21Maybe it should be a script for a TV movie.
01:23These are just some of the different forms, or modes,
01:26that a piece of writing can take.
01:28Once that's decided, writers still need to pick a genre.
01:32That's sort of like the style they'll use to tell the story.
01:37Well, let's say you wanted to write a story about courage.
01:40It might be about a girl who protects her town from a marauding giant.
01:44That would be in the fairy tale genre.
01:47Or you might tell the story of a detective
01:49who overcomes his fear of the dark to figure out whodunit.
01:52In other words, a mystery.
01:54Genres are flexible.
01:56They can work across different modes.
01:58Either of these could be a short story,
02:00a graphic novel, a play, you name it.
02:05You can tell a story's genre by the conventions it follows.
02:08These are similarities in tone, style, or subject matter.
02:12Sort of like the rules for that kind of story.
02:15If you've read a few mysteries,
02:17or even watched some mystery shows,
02:19you know that the main character has to be a detective,
02:22or at least someone who's trying to solve a crime.
02:25The detective will interview suspects and investigate clues.
02:29There's often a red herring,
02:31something that throws the hero and readers off the right path.
02:34It could be a suspicious character
02:36or a clue that seems to solve everything.
02:38Throughout the story,
02:40a sense of suspense keeps you turning the pages.
02:43And finally, the detective solves the crime
02:46using evidence that was available to the reader.
02:50As you read more of one genre,
02:52you start to pick up on its conventions.
02:54You'll anticipate plot twists
02:56and appreciate how authors play with the rules in unexpected ways.
03:00Well, like by mixing up the elements from different genres.
03:03Take Harry Potter.
03:05It's set in a world of magic and wizards,
03:07putting it in the fantasy genre.
03:09But it's also a coming-of-age story,
03:11tracking Harry's growth from a helpless kid
03:14to a confident young adult.
03:16J.K. Rowling blended elements from these genres in a unique way.
03:20Her creation was so successful,
03:22the coming-of-age fantasy novel is now practically its own subgenre.
03:27That's a more specific form of genre
03:29with its own particular conventions.
03:31For instance, satire is a subgenre of comedy
03:34that explores a problem with society.
03:37Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a good example.
03:39It satirizes how tough it can be to fit in at school.
03:42It's a painful subject in real life,
03:44but that's one of the conventions of satires.
03:47They touch on raw emotions,
03:49creating an effect that's funny and dark at the same time.
03:54Well, the point isn't to memorize
03:56all the conventions of every subgenre.
03:58Follow your own taste
04:00and learn as much as you can about your favorite genres.
04:03You can explore realistic fiction
04:05if you like to read, er, realistic stories.
04:08If you want to read about other galaxies
04:10or future technology,
04:12science fiction will be more your speed.
04:14As you explore, you'll see how authors use genre conventions
04:17to get across a story's main message or theme.
04:22Oh, this?
04:23Well, it's got giant man-eating rodents in it,
04:26so I'd say it's science fiction.
04:29And as silly as it is,
04:31it seems to be about the dangers of trying to control nature.
04:34That's a common theme in many different genres.
04:37Mary Shelley explored it in Frankenstein,
04:39about a brilliant doctor who thinks he can control life itself.
04:43Shelley uses the horror convention of a murderous monster
04:46to highlight the failure of the doctor's ideas.
04:49Ernest Hemingway took on a similar theme
04:51in his realistic adventure story,
04:53The Old Man and the Sea.
04:55Here, the struggle against nature
04:57is represented by an epic battle
04:59between a fisherman and some hungry sharks.
05:01See?
05:02Three genres, three unique approaches to the same idea.
05:05The brain-pop movie genre?
05:07What do you mean?
05:09This isn't fiction, it's real!
05:12A boy and his robot.
05:14For years, they've explained the mysteries of life.
05:17Real, I tell you!
05:19But the biggest mystery of all
05:21is right in front of them.