Re: New Yorker article

From: Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 09:04:34 -0700

On 9/20/98, Alan Kabat <alankabat[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> However, the author goes on to make the statement that there "are a mere
> seven basic stories" underlying all movies, "or, as the Supreme Court of
> California once determined in an excess of hairsplitting, thirty-six"
> (page 57).
>
> Does anyone know which California case is being referred to here?

"Literary property which is protectible may be created out of unprotectible material such as historical events. It has been said (and does not appear to have been successfully challenged) that "There are only thirty-six fundamental dramatic situations, various facets of which form the basis of all human drama." (Georges Polti, "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations"; see also Henry Albert Phillips, "The Universal Plot Catalog"; Eric Heath, "Story Plotting Simplified.") It is manifest that authors must work with and from ideas or themes which basically are in the public domain."

Desny v. Wilder, 46 Cal. 2d 715, 741 (1956).

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Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu>
UCLA School of Law '98
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1206/

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Received on Mon Sep 28 1998 - 16:02:49 GMT