The real great innovation is the result of starting from the human nature at the bottom and adapting to the external conditions, rather than human nature succumbing to the constraints of the external environment.
January 27, 2024, Section 392
When I was in college, I read a novel called "The Funeral of a Muslim", and while I was moved by the storyline, I was amazed by the author's novel way of narrating the results. The story is not spread out in chronological order, but the odd-numbered chapters have a storyline and an even-numbered chapter, one narrated from front to back, one backward to front, and the last chapter converges into a climax, which is very shocking.
The narrative approach of "Muslim Funeral" is non-linear. The non-linear narrative originated from the famous director Nolan, who was the director of "Inception" and "Oppenheimer".
Most people think that our memories are linear, or chronological, but Nolan thinks there's much more to memory than that.
Nolan's method is to break the timeline of the film and tell a story in a linear way without chronological order.
Memory is an expanding process, not a linear one. For example, when we read a newspaper, it is a process of continuous expansion. Read the headline first, then the content, and if you're interested, gather relevant stories the next day, or search the internet for related news. Constantly expand, add details, make connections, and finally form a holistic cognition.
The same is true of our daily conversations, no one chats in chronological order, but chats and talks about everything.
Why can't movies break the chronological order? The reason why the early films were chronological was because of the influence of television stations, and in the first place, the films were shot and sold to television stations. The TV station should take care that the audience can't honestly sit in front of the TV and watch a complete movie, watch it, and maybe go to do other things in the middle, to ensure that the audience can still understand the movie after they come back, it is best to narrate it in chronological order.
Cinema shows are not subject to this restriction, the audience can concentrate on watching the movie, and there is no need for the film to be narrated in chronological order.
The playback environment and playback mode affect each other. Nolan's non-linear narration based on human memory also requires matching of the playback environment.
The real great innovation is the result of starting from the human nature at the bottom and adapting to the external conditions, rather than human nature succumbing to the constraints of the external environment.