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Kurt Vonnegut, Shape of Stories (subtitulos castellano)

Eva CollinsAlonso · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Literature & writing craftUniversity lectures & courses

What it is

Kurt Vonnegut's 2004 Case College lecture, with Spanish subtitles, in which he sketches the shapes of stories on a blackboard. He plots story arcs as good and bad fortune against time.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Frequently recommended as a delightful, influential way to think about story structure.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “Vonnegut is really special. I always like coming back to his Shape of Stories talks”

    Longer Shape of Stories talk showing Vonnegut late in life

    bmitc, 2020-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (1977)”

  2. “a piece of Kurt Vonnegut's talk randomly found on youtube had an impact on me”

    Vonnegut talk that had a personal impact

    urxvtcd, 2021-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?”

  3. “There's an excellent video where he goes through these [0], worth a watch if you have the time.”

    Vonnegut walks through his story shapes on a blackboard

    iaw, 2019-01 · Recommendation · in “At the Blackboard: Kurt Vonnegut diagrams the shapes of stories (2005)”

  4. “beautifully explored here among other places”

    Explores the idea that stories have certain shapes

    sam_0123, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “No More Movies”

  5. “There is a video of Kurt Vonnegut talking about story telling called Shape of Stories thats pretty good.”

    Vonnegut on story shapes as a guide to telling stories

    f0e4c2f7, 2021-11 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: How do I learn how to tell a good story?”

  6. “I like the later-in-life version of the talk.”

    Later-in-life version of Vonnegut's Shape of Stories talk

    plussed_reader, 2024-02 · Recommendation · in “The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: kurt vonnegut, storytelling, narrative arcs, writing

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