grecian
Well-known member
I was watching a brilliant documentary on the great Terry Pratchett, the other week, and it reminded me of his greatness, It's well worth a watch, but not what this thread is about.
One of his genius premises was always how people want to believe in great stories or narratives, and they love to twist almost anything into this, no matter how true it maybe.
Sport is huge for this (which is ironic as Terry didn't really like sport) I was enjoying GIMPs tweets about Lincoln being scum yesterday, whilst everyone else was wanking themselves off over the story of "giantkilling" which is of course a staple of childrens stories. It's something that used to annoy the hell out of me too, particularly the original Wimbledon bullied their way to a Cup win John Beck's horrific Cambridge side did some great cup runs. Yet what's the point, in the end you go with it.
Gimp and I both bought in to the Leicester City hype, yet we know it started rather ignobly with the ex-managers son involved in racially abusing someone during an orgy (team-bonding there). Jamie Vardy, the hero of the thing, who truly went from non-league to glory Cinderella-like also said some very iffy things in his time. Yet did we care last year, did we **** it was the "story" it was something that we could grasp hold of in an increasing world of big bucks and seemingly a disconnect between the big clubs and little with massive overseas investment, and corporate bollocks, we also ignored that LCFC also have forn ownership and called their ground Walkers then KingPower.
The Williams sisters in tennis, people want to believe they came from the mean streets of Comptin to rule the stuffy World of tennis, again a stretch. I admire both immensely, but in the end Richard Williams has said he moved them to Compton to basically give them a tough upbringing, whilst he was relatively wealthy. Quite odd, but it worked, it has to be said, but not quite the ghetto children that some might say. Being middle-class in the USA probably bits you in the top .5% of the world, no matter the area. Most of the Eastern europeans she beats, particularly some of the Serbs, Ivanovic for instance, had a much worse childhood. Yet,to be fair, who cares in a way, if Serena and Venus can motivate people from those areas it's a decent thing.
I'm trying to keep from politics really, but it's hard not to wonder how odd that Brexit and Trump is seen as some kind of anti-establishment grab for the "real working man" when it just seems the most elitist types run both forces. It's a story that many of both supporters run with, and it's just so ****ing bizarre to me.
I think one of the more amazing "cinderella" stories, that was twisted so out of context though was the one of the late Jade Goody. For those that don't know it, she was a reality TV personality, who reached a ridiculous level of fame for about 8 years in this country. Now I'll admit at the time I became a bit obsessed with Big Brother 3, it had live coverage, it was vicious cruel and seemed frseh and unlike anything I'd seen, Jade was the break-out star, but she actually only finished 4th behind people no-one would have heard of. This was mainly because 80% of the people like me, who watched the show avidly, hated her guts, the other 20 adored her though. She was a vicious nasty bully, who prided herself in her own stupidity, yet for many people, who only casually watched i, or didn't at all, she just seemed a lovable thickie. So when the newspapers went to town on her, calling her a pig and the most hated woman in Britain, it all switched round. People that hadn't watched the show thought she was being bullied, rather than the bully which she was. Oh and the editors realised it, so we got her looking bullied in the House, whilst it was just a reaction to her shouting in peoples face for 5 weeks.
It became the biggest "cinderella" story in history and everyone else became the ugly sisters. The Press fell over themselves to trumpet her "the real winner", and it just wouldn't stop, every time she got in trouble afterwards, many times they'd make excuses. There was a brilliant time when she was arrested by the police for assaulting her boyfriend, and they made a skit over it in the Press, about how she went for a knife in the knife-draw, but she came out with a spatula. Hilarious, I would say to people, yeah, but she went for a knofe presumably to kill or maim. they'd reply "but she came out with a spatula. she's hilartious". She ran the marathon once, she did no fund-raising, had been giving a charity's precious berth( which they pay for), also her management gave her a personal trainer to work with, she failed because she didn't train. She then went on Jonathon Ross to say she didn't know how long a mile was, people fell about laughing. She made an indecent amount of moneyfrom fitness vids and diets, turned out she'd had lipo, no-one cared, good ol' Jade.
Now all this sounds a bit of a rant, but what makes the story utterly tragic is that after an unsuccesful second stint in the Big Brother House (where she acted pretty similarly to the first but this time got called on it "classic Tall Poppy Story"), she got cancer and died, now the point of this is that at times stories cannot carry on being the same because life intervenes drastically, or death in this case. I put in all the first stuff because it's how I raged at the time, but in the end it seems petty with her leaving two children behind and dying before she hit 30. It became the "tragic heroine" story, and the press went to Town on that.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone can think of other stories that have been shoe-horned into a familiar plot,(sporting, personal, World of Politics) because it's something that interests me inordinately. "the wronged women" might be a big one.
One of his genius premises was always how people want to believe in great stories or narratives, and they love to twist almost anything into this, no matter how true it maybe.
Sport is huge for this (which is ironic as Terry didn't really like sport) I was enjoying GIMPs tweets about Lincoln being scum yesterday, whilst everyone else was wanking themselves off over the story of "giantkilling" which is of course a staple of childrens stories. It's something that used to annoy the hell out of me too, particularly the original Wimbledon bullied their way to a Cup win John Beck's horrific Cambridge side did some great cup runs. Yet what's the point, in the end you go with it.
Gimp and I both bought in to the Leicester City hype, yet we know it started rather ignobly with the ex-managers son involved in racially abusing someone during an orgy (team-bonding there). Jamie Vardy, the hero of the thing, who truly went from non-league to glory Cinderella-like also said some very iffy things in his time. Yet did we care last year, did we **** it was the "story" it was something that we could grasp hold of in an increasing world of big bucks and seemingly a disconnect between the big clubs and little with massive overseas investment, and corporate bollocks, we also ignored that LCFC also have forn ownership and called their ground Walkers then KingPower.
The Williams sisters in tennis, people want to believe they came from the mean streets of Comptin to rule the stuffy World of tennis, again a stretch. I admire both immensely, but in the end Richard Williams has said he moved them to Compton to basically give them a tough upbringing, whilst he was relatively wealthy. Quite odd, but it worked, it has to be said, but not quite the ghetto children that some might say. Being middle-class in the USA probably bits you in the top .5% of the world, no matter the area. Most of the Eastern europeans she beats, particularly some of the Serbs, Ivanovic for instance, had a much worse childhood. Yet,to be fair, who cares in a way, if Serena and Venus can motivate people from those areas it's a decent thing.
I'm trying to keep from politics really, but it's hard not to wonder how odd that Brexit and Trump is seen as some kind of anti-establishment grab for the "real working man" when it just seems the most elitist types run both forces. It's a story that many of both supporters run with, and it's just so ****ing bizarre to me.
I think one of the more amazing "cinderella" stories, that was twisted so out of context though was the one of the late Jade Goody. For those that don't know it, she was a reality TV personality, who reached a ridiculous level of fame for about 8 years in this country. Now I'll admit at the time I became a bit obsessed with Big Brother 3, it had live coverage, it was vicious cruel and seemed frseh and unlike anything I'd seen, Jade was the break-out star, but she actually only finished 4th behind people no-one would have heard of. This was mainly because 80% of the people like me, who watched the show avidly, hated her guts, the other 20 adored her though. She was a vicious nasty bully, who prided herself in her own stupidity, yet for many people, who only casually watched i, or didn't at all, she just seemed a lovable thickie. So when the newspapers went to town on her, calling her a pig and the most hated woman in Britain, it all switched round. People that hadn't watched the show thought she was being bullied, rather than the bully which she was. Oh and the editors realised it, so we got her looking bullied in the House, whilst it was just a reaction to her shouting in peoples face for 5 weeks.
It became the biggest "cinderella" story in history and everyone else became the ugly sisters. The Press fell over themselves to trumpet her "the real winner", and it just wouldn't stop, every time she got in trouble afterwards, many times they'd make excuses. There was a brilliant time when she was arrested by the police for assaulting her boyfriend, and they made a skit over it in the Press, about how she went for a knife in the knife-draw, but she came out with a spatula. Hilarious, I would say to people, yeah, but she went for a knofe presumably to kill or maim. they'd reply "but she came out with a spatula. she's hilartious". She ran the marathon once, she did no fund-raising, had been giving a charity's precious berth( which they pay for), also her management gave her a personal trainer to work with, she failed because she didn't train. She then went on Jonathon Ross to say she didn't know how long a mile was, people fell about laughing. She made an indecent amount of moneyfrom fitness vids and diets, turned out she'd had lipo, no-one cared, good ol' Jade.
Now all this sounds a bit of a rant, but what makes the story utterly tragic is that after an unsuccesful second stint in the Big Brother House (where she acted pretty similarly to the first but this time got called on it "classic Tall Poppy Story"), she got cancer and died, now the point of this is that at times stories cannot carry on being the same because life intervenes drastically, or death in this case. I put in all the first stuff because it's how I raged at the time, but in the end it seems petty with her leaving two children behind and dying before she hit 30. It became the "tragic heroine" story, and the press went to Town on that.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone can think of other stories that have been shoe-horned into a familiar plot,(sporting, personal, World of Politics) because it's something that interests me inordinately. "the wronged women" might be a big one.
Last edited:
