Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with plots

Stumped dude tries google. Fails. Asks metafilter.

Netzapper — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:09:44 -0800

What are the prototypical or stereotypical plots and storylines? I'm looking for a list of the prototypical plots or storylines for both Western and Eastern fiction. I'm not interested the "man vs. nature" prototypical conflicts they taught in high school. I'm looking for more detailed, but still universal, plotlines.

For example, one might be: "Village has a problem. Mysterious stranger(s) rides into town. Solves problem without reducing his mystery. Leaves." Or "World is about to end. Reluctant hero is badgered into action."

As my examples show, I don't need much detail. But I want a lot of them. I'm just as happy with your suggestions as with external links to compiled lists.

60s TV show about a boy being reunited with his dog after his family dies in a car wreck

NoraReed — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:17:59 -0800

My mom has a memory of a TV show or movie she saw in the early 60s and she cannot figure out where it came from. It involves a boy going on a picnic and then there being a car accident where everyone but the boy and the dog died; he responds to a picture of a dog while in therapy and then he gets reunited with the dog. Her full description after the jump. Here's the full description she gave me: A boy and his family go on a picnic, including the son's dog, a collie. On the way home they get in a car accident and everyone is killed except for the boy and the dog. When the rescue people come they don't know about the dog so he or she is left behind. The dog searches for the boy. Meanwhile the boy is in therapy at the hospital and he doesn't seem to respond to any stimulus until he is shown a picture of a collie (or dog, she doesn't remember). So the hospital people know he has a relationship with the dog. The end they get reunited; she doesn't remember the middle.

She thought it was from an episode of Lassie but she read the descriptions of all the old Lassie episodes and it didn't seem to be there. She said it was possible the dog was not a collie (it could have been a German Shepherd).

crop matlab plots

pravit — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:18:10 -0800

How can I automatically crop the whitespace in Matlab plots pasted into Word? I find a not insignificant portion of my time in report writing is spent cropping the extra whitespace around Matlab plots that are pasted into Word. Is there some way to eliminate the whitespace automatically, either with some nifty Word trick or by forcing Matlab to generate windows without so much whitespace around the plot? Thanks.

Visually exploring and representing survey data.

proj — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:45:08 -0800

Best ways to visually explore a large survey data set? My advisor has advised me to explore my data set visually before diving in statistically. It is a large (N = 180,000+) survey data set comprised of individuals in over 80 countries. Most of the responses are categorical or dichotomous in nature, taking the form "agree/disagree" or "yes/no/maybe." Some of them are Likert-style scales (1-5, Disagree-Agree). Many of the demographic variables are also categorical (for example, rather than asking income, "income level" is asked) but I do have a few continuous variables such as age. My dependent variable of interest is a scale composed of four survey items indexed to 100 (although the actual number of discrete values taken on the scale is rather low owing to the nature of the questions comprising the scale).

What would be some interesting ways to visually explore this data? Obviously, scatterplots (even with jittering) are not the way to go because of the highly redundant and categorical nature of the data. I have a few boxplots that I've generated (usually separating by gender or region). I am open to abstract suggestions or concrete suggestions using R or Stata.

Is there a list of novel plots?

humblepigeon — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:57:48 -0800

Is there a searchable site that details novel/fiction plots or storylines? (Important notes below.) I'm looking for a site that contains summaries of novels—effectively full summaries that are searchable. I found this previous AskMeFi question, which links to sites that summarize novels in 25 words, but that's not what I'm looking for. Please bear in mind two things: 1) I'm not looking for a list of archetype plots (ie The 36 Dramatic Situations); 2) The blurb on most book store sites like Amazon don't list the full plots, only part of them. Wikipedia often lists summaries but it's impossible, AFAIK, to search just the entries for novels or other types of fiction in isolation.

How many plots are there and what book can I find this in?

kk — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 13:34:52 -0800

I've heard tell that there's only some X number of plots in the world, and someone has outlined them in an old book. Anyone with a clue which book?

If "terrorists are plotting to influence the US Presidential election", what outcome are they hoping for?

banished — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 23:55:32 -0800

Terrorism Question: I've heard repeatedly in the news and read in several news articles that terrorists are plotting against the United States in hopes of influencing the Presidential election. What does this mean, and how to they expect to influence it? [More Inside] It would seem obvious that if there was another terrorist attack, the country would rally around George W. Bush, as they did after September 11th when his approval rating was at an all time high of 90%. Assuming this is true, when the White House says Al Qaeda is planning to influence the outcome of the election, aren't they effectively saying that the terrorists want Bush to win? Are they admitting that his policies are helping Al Qaeda's cause, and increasing the threat of terrorism worldwide? If the terrorists are endorsing Bush... shouldn't voters know this, and shouldn't that be motivation to vote against him?

Or am I wrong? Is the news media and the White House assuming that another terrorist attack would make Bush look like he's not doing his job, and alienate voters?

Does anyone know of any good websites to explain what a given film means?

ralawrence — Mon, 10 May 2004 07:27:50 -0800

In a moment of boredom I watched Cube 2: Hypercube on SciFi and didn't understand very much of it. Why were they all there? What was the actual point of them being there? What was the necklace all about? Why did they shoot Katie? What was she actually trying to do? My question really is: Does anyone know of any good websites where if you don't understand a film, someone else will tell you what it all meant?