The Twist

The twist is an interesting concept in stories. No, not that kind of twist. I’m not talking about a dance here, but it is an awfully nice picture from back in the day, don’t you think? Since, I’m not talking about “the twist” as a dance, what am I talking about?

Well, I’m talking about the literary twist. Well, to be fair, it could also be in a movie or a television show. For example, on Once Upon a Time it turns out that Henry is Rumpelstiltskin’s grandson. You never saw that one coming did you? Well, I did, but hey, I’ve read about a million stories. So don’t feel bad if you didn’t see it coming.

Anyway, the literary twist is a device authors have been using for years. The story is going along. Things are fine, well maybe they’re not fine, but you’re ok with that because it’s a story. You keep going along. You think you might be able to figure out “whodunit” or “whosthatbabysdaddy.” You keep going along, you keep going along, you know, kind of like a straight road. You can see the end of the story in sight then…BAM!!! A tree jumps out into the middle of the road! Or maybe not, but instead of a tree it could be something else. Your main character could have a twin brother who is really evil. Maybe you sold your hair to buy somebody something, but they sold their something to buy you some combs, but you’re bald now, so they don’t really do a lot of good. Thanks O’Henry.

I like the twist. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like it every sense. Stephen King uses the twist at a prolific rate in his novels, but I am not always fond of the way in which the story twists. A book that completely blind-sided me with its twist was My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I NEVER saw that coming. I can’t tell you what it is either, because it’s just too awesome to give away. Trust me, it’s not in the movie. The movie sucks. Jodi wrote a twist so beautiful and so dramatic that I’ve never really seen it equaled in any other novels I’ve read. I want to high-five Jodi for that, although, I’m not as impressed with some of her other books.

There are other authors who use this twist thing. Edgar Allan Poe has been known to throw one out here or there. I’ve read novels with humorous twists when a character isn’t really who you think they are in the end. I’ve read novels with twists that bring a long string of events together. I happen to like some of those instances because you might spend an entire book being confused, but then you get to the end and you read the twist. Then you’re like, “Ah, I get it.”

I’m not saying all books have to have that one big twist, because they definitely do not. There are plenty of novels without a twist that do just fine for themselves. They’re entertaining. I was going to give the Harry Potter series as an example of a story that does not have a gigantic twist, but it does. You’ve seen the movies, you know what the twist is, and, yes, it is awesome.

I can’t really think of a novel off the top of my head that doesn’t have a twist. That’s because all stories have twists, but they don’t all have that big twist some of the stories we encounter have. All stories twist and turn, that’s what makes them a story. Maybe that is also why some people call stories “yarns,” yarn can get awfully twisted if you’re not paying attention. If your story doesn’t have some twists, your story is nothing; it’s not a story.

This tradition has translated over into movies, of course. One of the best(used to be best) masters of the twist was M. Night  Shyamalan. You may have seen some of his recent junk like The Last Airbender or that movie where trees were trying to kill people, but you really shouldn’t judge him by those movies alone. Signs, The Village, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Lady in the Water all have awesome twists. Argue all you want about these movies, but the stories are great and the twists are great. The music is also great. Unbreakable was one of the first movies M. put out. It was brilliant. There were logic defying character points and motives that were questionable. It was great. Then we have the Sixth Sense and Bruce Willis isn’t what he thinks he is, but the little boy knows what he is. Signs is a movie about aliens, but they’re not your average invasion and surprisingly someone saw through to the terrible invasion before it happened. The Village, is my favorite one and you guys are just mean if you don’t agree. Boy was that a twist! Then we have Lady in the Water, although not as exciting as some of the other movies, it still has its twists. The twists in this movie deal more with characters and character assignments. It’s neat to see a movie with an interesting twist.

There are of course other movies with twists and also television shows like I mentioned earlier with Once Upon a Time. If you wanted a show with lots of twists watch Lost. That show has plenty of twists some of which never finish twisting around all the way.

The ultimate objective of a twist is to surprise. I wouldn’t say it’s misleading, although some people might. I would say the surprise factor is the main objective. A good story has a point in which you drop your jaw and scream, “No way!” in the manner that you did while you watched Crazy, Stupid Love, at a pivotal moment. You know the moment I’m talking about. When a story surprises you, you know you’ve picked out a good story to read.
Harry Potter, literary twists, Lost, m night shymalan, my sister’s keeper, ohenry, Once Upon a Time, the twist, the twist dance, twists in stories
Thoughts and Ponders
One-elevenbooks