Writing About Meta-Reference

I have never struggled so hard coming up with content for a specific blog entry as I have done with this one. Meta-Reference (more specifically meta-fiction/film) is something that has long since intrigued me well before I even realized what it was. I had seen movies before that involved meta-reference, but the movie that really got me thinking about writing about meta-reference was Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation".

As I stayed up late one night, completely pulled into the movie, I began twisting my brains around the idea of character realization and the devices we use to tell our stories. The quick (but confusing) run-down on Adaptation: Charlie Kaufman (character) plays himself (screenwriter) as he sits through the production of his latest screenplay (Being John Malkovich (also a crazy movie)). Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt a real-life book (The Orchard Thief) into a screenplay. Charlie Kaufman (character/screenwriter) unintentionally includes himself in the screenplay (based on the real book) and what inevitably happens is that the movie (Adaptation) begins to be about Charlie Kaufman (whichever) writing the screenplay for the movie (no-longer based on the book) of which we are already, and have been, watching for an extended period of time. So in brief, Adaptation is a movie about watching itself being written (I think).

This warped my brain around so much that I dedicated time and patience to research and eventually blog about the whole ordeal, only to find that I could not formulate a reasonable way to present the information regarding meta-realization. I threw around "clever" ideas such as referring to myself writing the blog, and then referring to myself about referring to myself writing the blog, and then as a dramatic twist I would refer to myself about referring to myself about referring to myself writing the blog. But I decided that it would be way to confusing.

So finally I decided to perhaps give some solid definitions and examples of Meta-Reference (Fiction & Film). If you are familiar with the movies "Stranger Then Fiction" or "The Never-Ending Story" you are already familiar with Meta-Film. In both of these movies, the main character is simultaneously involved in two distinct plot lines that refer to each other in unity and self-consciously address the devices of story-telling being used. The main characters of the plot reveal that they are aware of their own story being told, thus share an odd similarity with the intended viewer.

Or perhaps either of Stephen King's "The Secret Window" or "The Dark Tower" series. Where in the first of the two, the main character becomes (or is) the main sinister character he himself is writing about, or the ladder where Stephen King himself is an essential plot character who (as a character in the story) needs to finish writing the story (of which he is in) so the main characters can continue on. Real Crazy Stuff.

I may have just confused myself further upon re-reading what I have wrote, but I hope the message gets across. For further insight onto Meta-Realization follow this link: Meta-Reference Articulated


BDL