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/lit/ - Literature

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6875979 No.6875979 [Reply] [Original]

Is it possible to write a good story without conflict?

>> No.6876005

Yes.

>> No.6876011

>>6875979
It's called "Rings of Saturn".

>> No.6876017

Who is this Good Story and why is everyone trying to write him?

>> No.6876020

No.

>> No.6876026

>>6876017
You fucked up by not calling him A Good Story, or maybe, A. Goodstory.

>> No.6876027

>>6876011
There's conflict in Rings of Saturn, you asshole.

>> No.6876033

>>6875979
The Lord of the Rings. 9/10s of it is Hobbits wandering around the countryside, and the rest is pretty superfluous and could be cut.

>> No.6876210

>>6875979

everybody cites Miyazaki movies when talking about this, so I think it is possible yeah

>> No.6876219 [DELETED] 

Of course.

>> No.6876256

>>6875979
Is it possible to write a story without conflict?

>> No.6876266

>>6876210
and those people are retarded. isn't howls moving castle literally about breaking a spell and good vs evil or w/e

>> No.6876282

>>6876266

Totoro is usually referenced more

>> No.6876290
File: 23 KB, 500x385, patrick-bateman-new-york.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6876290

>mfw one of Nabokov's short stories is literally about an aging couple who want to visit their son in the hospital, but can't, so they go home and eat dinner

>> No.6876295

>>6876282
There are also films like Kiki's Delivery Service and Whisper of the Heart which don't really have a plot either. It could be argued that there's "inner conflict" in ones like those though.

>> No.6876301

>>6876290
>but can't

m8 there's conflict right there in your post

any depiction of a non-static reality has conflict. As long as there is entropy and change, there is conflict.

>> No.6876311

>>6876027
I fell asleep during too early for that, I guess.

>> No.6876327

>>6876301
As I recall, the story begins with them back at home, and the issue of them not visiting is dealt with in perhaps a sentence or two. Read the story for yourself and you'll find that it's little more than a sequence of events with no real problem or conflict.

>> No.6876357
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6876357

>>6876210
>>6876266
>>6876282
>>6876295
>tfw Japanese girlfriend bought me a box set of studio Ghibli movies for my birthday last year
>tfw we broke up and I can't even hear the music from any of those movies without just about losing it
>tfw today is my birthday
>tfw that box set is in my bedside table waiting until I'm ready to come back to it
Fuck bros, whether there's a "real" conflict or not in those movies it's damn hard not to make an emotional connection with whatever the characters are doing.

>> No.6876433
File: 27 KB, 480x261, kiki.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6876433

>>6876357
Kiki's Delivery Service is my favorite movie, and I I am a 31 year old male.
>inb4 pedo

>> No.6876502

>>6876433
You're not a pedo, you just have shit taste

>> No.6876532

>>6876357
>having a japanese gf buy you a ghibli box set and then break up with you

literally the worst hell i could imagine. be strong anonymous.

>> No.6876561

>>6876357
Whisper of the Heart is probably the slowest and most uneventful film I've ever seen, but I still almost tear up every time I hear that song.

>> No.6876586

Man, the only Ghibli I like is Only Yesterday and Nausicaa. The rest is just childish and I can't feel to any of it because I for some reason didn't watch them when they came on Toonami those many years ago

>> No.6876666

>>6876327
>>6876301
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/05/15/symbols-and-signs?currentPage=all

>> No.6876787

>>6876033
Why would you cut the only good parts?

>> No.6876797

>>6875979
It's like asking if it's possible to have dry water or a round square. By definition a story is a narrative sequence, and narrative requires conflict, also by definition. You can write something without conflict easily enough. An IKEA construction guide, for example. But it has no narrative, and so it's not a story.

>> No.6876805

>>6876797
>narrative requires conflict, also by definition
this is literally what is in dispute itt my man

>> No.6876911

>>6876797
What's the conflict in the Myth of Er?

>> No.6877006
File: 59 KB, 339x267, adruse hitmuse.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6877006

>yfw stories with supposedly no conflict create a conflict between the reader and the work itself

>> No.6877155

>>6876797
>>6876256
These

>> No.6877158

Yasujiro Ozu's films have largely only inconsequential conflicts in them

>> No.6877164
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6877164

>>6875979
>Is it possible to write a good story without conflict?
stories are always about
-tragedy
-drama

in other words, a conflict.

>> No.6877174

>>6876561
COUNTRY ROADS
TAKE ME HOME

>> No.6877581

>>6876210
But they're fucking full of conflict. Each one of them.

Who the hell is spouting this bullshit in this world.

>> No.6877617

>>6875979
If you have the right mindset maybe Sweet Anticipation by David Huron could nudge you in the right direction.

>> No.6877888

>>6876210
>Ghibli movies
>No Conflict

Princess Mononoke
>Iron-town and the forest are fighting, The samurai are also fighting iron-town. Prince Ashitaka fights to get them to stop fighting.

Nausicaa
>The Tolmikians are fighting different people depending on if you are reading the manga or watching the movie, Nausicaa fights either with or against the Tolmikians.

Castle in the Sky
>The government and the pirates are fighting over Laptua.

Porco Roso
>The Pig fights the american guy. Pig is also suffering from internal conflict.

Shall I go on?

>> No.6877897

>>6875979
Anything is possible. If you can do it well, you can break any rule in the book.

If you can't do it well.....then that's a entirely different story.

>> No.6877902

>>6877888

well you cherrypicked all of his movies that have a very literal conflict in them, so yeah, continue. Who is the antagonist is Totoro? What is the conflict of Kiki's Delivery Service?

>> No.6877904

>>6877888
They must be thinking Totoro and Kiki have no conflict

How about the big balled raccoons? I haven't seen that one.

>> No.6877910

>>6877902
>>6877902

Kiki had plenty of internal conflict when Kiki lost her magic. There was also a big action scene at the end with the Blimp. Conflict does not require a bad guy, just an uncertain outcome. Or do you think disaster movies also have no conflict?

As for Totoro, I haven't seen that, but aren't they like going to the countryside because their mother is in the hospital? That's a form of conflict.

>> No.6877911

>>6877902
Mei getting lost/Mother's illness

...Shoot. It's been a while since I last saw Kiki. There was something, but it's true, those two are very light on the conflict. It's mostly about character/situation introduction

>> No.6877914

>>6877904
I haven't seen that either, but I think there is something going on with their forest being developed or something. That's very literal conflict.


There are stories with no conflict, but Ghibli movies are not them.

>> No.6877929

>>6877911

Mei doesn't get lost until like the third act of the movie. The mother's illness is a challenge they face, but there's really only a few scenes that deal with it. It can hardly be called the central conflict of the movie.

>>6877910

Again, in Kiki, the action doesn't start until the third act. I agree that both Mei getting lost and the blimp scenes are conflict, but the movie is still enjoyable up until that point without there being any true conflict. In a disaster movie, the disaster is heavily forshadowed in the first act, then dominates all of the second and third acts. Kiki and Totoro just arent structured that way.

>> No.6877932

>>6876433
You don't see many movies.
Have you seen Happy-Go-Lucky? Amelie?

>>6876586
>The rest is just childish and I can't feel to any of it because...
Have you been trying to kill off your inner child or something? See Mononoke yet? It was not childish in the least.

>> No.6877943

>>6877929
I didn't call it "the central conflict" Without these points the film would be over in half an hour. The introductory stuff would be done.
It doesn't matter when it starts.

>> No.6877948

>>6877929
Pacing and foreshadowing does not make a conflict stop being a conflict. It just makes a movie not be a stupid american disaster movie.

>> No.6877957

Porn tends to have no conflict, and everyone loves porn

>> No.6877964

>>6876210
there is conflict in all his movies.

it can be done, op. but not easy. I mean conflict and how grow from the experience is what makes most stories worth telling.

>> No.6877969
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6877969

>>6877957
Now apply this to "erotica" the porn that mixes in a little plot.

>> No.6877991
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6877991

>>6877910
yeah this. kiki's conflict was a coming of age story. so it's her doubting her ability and overcoming that and finding confidence in herself again.

totoro has the most implicit sense of conflict. I would go with the mother character's illness. it's not the mother's illness directly but how sasuki and mei deal with her illness emotionally.

by the end with totoro's help they leave her vegetables.

>> No.6877996
File: 85 KB, 900x675, frodo.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6877996

>>6877957
>Porn tends to have no conflict

how can there be a climax in the story with no conflict?

>> No.6877997

>>6877902
Art thou of mighty density?

>> No.6878004

>>6877904
Pom Pokko is about tanuki trying to save their home from deforestation, there's definitely conflict.

>> No.6878014 [DELETED] 

>>6875979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHVqxD8PNq8

>this video not been posted

shame on /lit/

>> No.6878016

There wasn't much conflict in Swanns Way

>> No.6878023

>>6877996
Sex is a cnflict in itself... One body intruding another while it is repeatedly rejected and thrust back inside. Its like a battle until the eventual clmax where the bodies exchange fluids and become one

>> No.6878035

>>6877902
see
>>6877991

>> No.6878063

Conflict can be internal

>> No.6878069

>>6878063
that's what was said about kiki and most other coming-of-age stories.

>> No.6878074

There's conflict in everything, it's a pretty loose term

>> No.6878083

>>6877932
>Happy-Go-Lucky? Amelie?
You don't see many movies.

>> No.6878088

Abstract stories, maybe. Finnegan's Wake comes to mind, though you could say it creates conflict between the text and the reader. Maybe I'm just a pleb, though.

>> No.6878107
File: 95 KB, 460x290, Ran.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6878107

>>6878083
I was thinking of similar feel good films. If Kiki is his/her favourite, I doubt s/he would like Ran or something heavy like that.

>> No.6878850

>>6877957
>service is rendered
>protagonist has no money to pay for said service
>suggests "alternative" form of payment
>service provider is hesitant
>protagonist makes the first move to end their uncertainty
>forty minute erotic performance commences
>service provider suggests that protagonist always pay in this way from now on
>curtains

>> No.6878859

>>6875979
Does Molloy have conflict?

>> No.6879636

How about comedy
Some jokes don't have conflict yet contain a story

>> No.6879655

>>6876301
this. /thread

>> No.6880635

>>6875979
the main conflict here i think is the union of the words "good story" not "story without conflict". If we understand a story as a sequence of events then you probably can write a sequence of events without conflict, i mean think of a vacation spent all day in your house. But i dont know if can write a good story without conflict, writing a good story WITH conflict is a great endeavor. I wouldnt spend much time trying to write a good story without conflict, i dont think it could be too much profitable even for myself. For me literature is about life and life is about conflict, because no matter how passive or easy life you have there is one thing that nobody escapes from, and that is death. So we humans create art, practice religion and do many other things that help us deal with at least this conflict of life and death. So for me it aint worth more than ten minutes of my life on trying to create a good story without conflict. I believe its possible as it is possible to build a highway to the moon, you dont ask here if such thing is possible, you ask here why would somebody do that?

>> No.6880702

My fav book of all time, Murphy by Beckett, is literally about a man (murphs) trying to do nothing. He doesn't want to talk to people, he doesn't want to go out, he just tries to chill rocking back and forth in his rocking chair. Nothing really happens.

I think you mean to ask is it possible to write a good book without conflict, not the story since that itself needs to have certain devices to rise above.The story itself in the example above isn't a tale on par with LOTR or something, but it's a great book

>> No.6880707

>>6880702
So fucking exploding in a gas fire is "nothing"?

>> No.6882470

Story of the Eye

>> No.6882501
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6882501

>>6876561
>>6877174
oh god, the feels

>> No.6882528

Clerks didn't have conflict.

>> No.6882531

>>6875979
yes.
but define conflict please OP; perhaps this is your problem.

>> No.6883252

>>6877888
>>6877902
>>6877904
>>6877910
>>6877911
>>6877914
>>6877929
>>6877932
>You don't see many movies.
>Have you seen Happy-Go-Lucky? Ameli
>>6877943
>>6877964
>>6878004
>>6878069
>>6878107
All Ghibli films have conflict before you even turn them on. It begins with:
>Japanese with subs or English dub?
Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke dub
Everything else sub

>> No.6883622

>>6876433
The conflict is internal. It's Kiki vs ego.

>>6877932
>fag
Why can't we have both?

>> No.6883818

>>6880702
conflict between him and the world. trying to make sure there is no conflict becomes the ultimate conflict.
fgt

>> No.6884762

>>6875979
I don't think so, simply because change of any nature can be construed as conflict.

A book without conflict would essentially be a portrait; no change, no insight past surface level description, which even that can be read into.

>> No.6884804

So I just realized that people dont understand the literary definition of conflict. Basically if there anything the protag is trying to get or achieve or something hindering him from anything that counts as conflict. Someone said all the walking in LotR but thats Man vs Nature get fucked mate

>> No.6884808

Story without conflict is just porn. No.

>> No.6884861

>>6875979
Conflict is inherent to existence. A better question would be if you can write a good story without a plot.