Post by account_disabled on Dec 26, 2023 21:37:29 GMT -8
Surely you all know the Latin phrase deus ex machina . It was a "narrative" device from ancient times, when it was believed that a deity could influence human life. Does the deus ex machina still exist ? Can we use it in a novel? In reality, the deus ex machina, albeit in other forms, has stood the test of time. I myself made use of it in my science fiction novel (which is getting ever closer to the end!). In some serial stories, such as those of James Bond and Batman, for example, the deus ex machina often recurs, if not in the characters and events, then in the technological resources of the 2 protagonists. Origin of the expression “Deus ex machina” We have to go back in time to the era of Greek tragedy , in the classical age, therefore around the 5th-6th century BC.
Some think that Euripides was the pioneer of this expedient, perhaps because he often used it in his tragedies. The complete phrase means "the god who descends from the machine": because the actor who impersonated the divinity descended, thanks to a theatrical machine, onto the stage, to symbolize the god who descends from heaven. This expedient Special Data was used when men had no more ways out and only a deity could resolve the situation. The deus ex machina in the modern age Times have changed, readers and spectators too, becoming more and more savvy: but the use of the deus ex machina has resisted the passage of centuries and millennia, even if its meaning has expanded and today it is meant by deus ex machina is no longer a deity (or at least not only), but a key character, or even an event, which resolves an impediment, an obstacle, a problem in the story.
The deus ex machina can today take on as many forms as the author needs to resolve a situation, to overcome writer's block and continue the narrative. Literature offers us many examples of deus ex machina. Here are 3 different types. Providence by Alessandro Manzoni Providence is divine intervention in human affairs . A religious author like Manzoni made good use of it in the novel The Betrothed , which has in fact been defined as the "novel of Providence". In this case the deus ex machina, more than a character or an event (even if the plague, in a certain sense, could be considered a sort of "deus ex machina"), is a religious concept specific to multiple characters, each with one's interpretation of providence.
Some think that Euripides was the pioneer of this expedient, perhaps because he often used it in his tragedies. The complete phrase means "the god who descends from the machine": because the actor who impersonated the divinity descended, thanks to a theatrical machine, onto the stage, to symbolize the god who descends from heaven. This expedient Special Data was used when men had no more ways out and only a deity could resolve the situation. The deus ex machina in the modern age Times have changed, readers and spectators too, becoming more and more savvy: but the use of the deus ex machina has resisted the passage of centuries and millennia, even if its meaning has expanded and today it is meant by deus ex machina is no longer a deity (or at least not only), but a key character, or even an event, which resolves an impediment, an obstacle, a problem in the story.
The deus ex machina can today take on as many forms as the author needs to resolve a situation, to overcome writer's block and continue the narrative. Literature offers us many examples of deus ex machina. Here are 3 different types. Providence by Alessandro Manzoni Providence is divine intervention in human affairs . A religious author like Manzoni made good use of it in the novel The Betrothed , which has in fact been defined as the "novel of Providence". In this case the deus ex machina, more than a character or an event (even if the plague, in a certain sense, could be considered a sort of "deus ex machina"), is a religious concept specific to multiple characters, each with one's interpretation of providence.