George Reeves Books

1.0 out of 5 stars Astral possession!, December 4, 2007
By Jlm Perkovic "Twin Flame poet (Vesna Perkovic)" (CROATIA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I have read virtually ALL books pertaining to the Twin Soul/Flame concept ( at least on AMAZON!)..However, I have never read one that has brought me less joy than this particular book.
I do NOT think this is a Twin Soul reconnection it has all the signs of ASTRAL POSSESSION.
Jean Cline has alas, become more masculine!
The whole idea of Twins merging is for BOTH polarities to be in BALANCE,to become a WHOLE.
In this case I see the masculine as the dominant polarity as the feminine dissipates into God knows where.


Vesna P.
(Croatia)
If i was Jean I'd be very worried about my state of being.
I am truly surprized that Gary W. Duncan MS. MA. wasn't able to recognize the fact that this is clearly a case of astral possession.
I was very dissappointed in the book..perhaps you won't be.

I read the back cover the cracked open the book. I could not stop reading it. Everything discussed on the back cover is more clearly explained inside and I have expanded my knowledge on the topic of Twin Souls as a result.

To the reviewer who said "clearly a case of astral possession," I disagree, but even so . . . So what? That, too, would be an interesting read, no? I don't think that reviewer read the entire book because the clinical counselor involved did consider this possibility and his reasons for deciding it was a case of twin souls merging are clearly outlined in the last few chapters.

I loved this book! I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I thought the whole subject matter of souls from two different people to be twin souls that are actually merging, to be an incredible read. It seems the author did everything professionally and personally to prove or disprove this case. I was very impressed with his qualifications and to the extent of his research and knowledge on the subject matter. I, as a reader, am thankful that this case history has been shared with the world to read!

I don't quite understand how Polti came to classify the plots in this book the way he did. It made little sense to me. Nevertheless, I do see it as a useful reference for writers stuck for ideas. For my own part, I was able to think of some ideas which Polti did not seem to cover, even when I thought of his classifications as 'general categories', umbrellas under which every conceivable plot could fall.

This text comes highly recommended as a classic by far too many creative writing and screenwriting teachers.

Want to know if this book is for you? Read this passage:

"In the second, by means of a contraction analogous to that which abbreviates a syllogism to an enthymeme, this undecided power is but an attribute of the persecutor himself."

The entire book reads this way, so if that works for ya, you'll love this book. If it doesn't, you'll need to look elsewhere.

If you wish to remain in that happy blissful world of suspended disbelief, where fairy stories continue to charm and inspire, and heroes are held sacred, then by all means never read this book.

"He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing." Gospel of John: 9: 6-7.

The intended audience of this work: the permanently cynical (me), writers, and English Literature undergraduates. For undergrads: after mentioning Foucault you quote Polti's structural plot diagnostic in some obfuscated sentence in about your third paragraph of any lit paper and you're on your way to graduating with honors. Heck, you professor won't even read any further and just slap an "A" on the darn thing. For writers: if you are stuck, reading this will send you screaming back to your alphanumeric clavichord faster than a Mustang with a tank full of white lightening and jet fuel.

One of the horrible things about reviewing is you start to think about what you've seen and read. Given man's continued Aristotelian imperative to classify, we also begin to classify written and visual literature. Soon this is distilled to an essence, and soon you read the essence instead of the story. Or the familiar story is re-written in a disguised way, and with such excellent selection of language, you don't care.

Georges Polti made things even worse than Aristotle did, and now there are no new stories under the sun. Instead of a Novel-O-Matic or "Mad-Lib: The Novel" we have Polti's "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations." Read this and you need never read again, but will always just flip to this most essential of the "Master Plots."

Why 36? Why not. Nice factoring on that handy number, sounds plausible, and didn't Jesus die at 36 years old? Or was it 33? Aren't there "Form Critics" and deconstructionists who hold the Gospels out to be the first novels? Polti hesitates not.

An explanation of each dramatic situation would have been helpful. However, the author only gives a list of works that a situation can be found in. The book was not what I was looking for. I wanted something to help me write conflict and plot. Maybe it would be helpful if I shifted through the massive reading list the author provides. Over all, I was not satisfied with this.

This book is famous mostly among people who have only heard of it. People who have actually read it are less gushy with their praise.

Most folks think of this as a book of all the different plots and their variations. But personally, I prefer to look at the title itself, which speaks not of "plots" but of "dramatic situations".

Picture a story as if it were a play. When the curtain rises, the actors are all on stage and frozen in a tableau that displays their roles and inter-relationships. It is Polti's contention that these tableaus, or "dramatic situations", amount to no more than 36 in number.

How does this differ from 36 plots? Well, there may be only a limited number of relationships among the characters when the curtain first rises, but there are a zillion different ways in which those relationships can play themselves out. In Polti's sub-headings he goes through a wide range of different variations.

So if you're looking for a one-size-fits-all set of plotlines so that you can write your blockbuster, forget it. If you want a densely written analysis of the 36 Dramatic Situations, this is your book. The book will help writers think about their craft, but it's still not as simple as people make it sound when they describe the book over a beer.

One problem that I ran into was Polti's era and nationality. He was a Frenchman writing almost a hundred years ago. As a result, his voluminous notations describing a plethora of literary examples was mainly lost on me. Unless you're an expert on 19th Century French theatre, you may find yourself in the same boat.

My bottom line: this is a good book. I'm glad I've got it and I occasionaslly pull it off the shelf and re-read sections. But is it a masterpiece, the Holy Grail of plot-writers? No.

Why bother with the CD when the book is such a pleasure to use?

The BOOK rates SIX STARS. The CD rates NO STARS. Get the book for half or a third the price of the CD. It's worth it.

The cd contains many raster scans of tables from the book and links to commentary that you can find elsewhere in greater detail. The links to industry aren't anything special, considering you can find them many other places for free. The interface is clunky, and hard to read. Access to the data is read-only off the CD rather than allowing you to load it and access it from the hard drive. The vector CAD drawings are simplified and generic - suitable for instruction, but certainly not for real work. You won't save any time trying to use them for anything but reference, so why bother? This CD is worth 1% of its list price and should just come with the book at no cost. Don't be taken in by the hype.

The figures of this book are very useful for details in professional drawings. On the other hand, it gives simple ideas to solve common problems on construction.

After: Hero = "someone like myself" and Villain = "someone like my enemy" and Heroine = "prettiest girl I never had" most writers break down, except for the occasional Comic Relief = "my wisecracking avuncular friend." Occasionally you get "Old Man with waning powers" or Hera = "Manipulative Matron" or some others straight out of Greek mythology, and if writers are really stretching they can come up with a Loki/Puck character, or occasionally a Caliban or a Rakshasa. But the curse of every hack is the "crusty but benign..."

"The first one is set at a large Eastern law school, presumably Harvard. The series is irresistibly entitled "The New Lawyers." The running characters are a crusty-but-benign ex-Supreme Court justice, presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba; there's a beautiful girl graduate student; and the local district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners. The second one is called "The Amazon Squad." The running characters include a crusty-but-benign police lieutenant who's always getting heat from the commissioner; a hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen; and the brilliant and beautiful young girl cop who's fighting the feminist battle on the force. Up next is another one of those investigative reporter shows. A crusty-but-benign managing editor who's always gett..." "Barbara," from NETWORK (1976).

This book is here to help, but disappoints.

If you really want to develop charecters, just change the setting and remember "Mediocre writers borrow; Great writers steal." T.S. Eliot.

I have read virtually ALL books pertaining to the Twin Soul/Flame concept ( at least on AMAZON!)..However, I have never read one that has brought me less joy than this particular book.
I do NOT think this is a Twin Soul reconnection it has all the signs of ASTRAL POSSESSION.
Jean Cline has alas, become more masculine!
The whole idea of Twins merging is for BOTH polarities to be in BALANCE,to become a WHOLE.
In this case I see the masculine as the dominant polarity as the feminine dissipates into God knows where.


Vesna P.
(Croatia)
If i was Jean I'd be very worried about my state of being.
I am truly surprized that Gary W. Duncan MS. MA. wasn't able to recognize the fact that this is clearly a case of astral possession.
I was very dissappointed in the book..perhaps you won't be.