Charlie Kaufman vs. Robert McKee: A Tale of Two Stories

On the human "desire for consonance" in our stories, and the furies unleashed when it's absent.

I first read Dara Horn’s wise and funny book, People Love Dead Jews, roughly a year ago. Since then, I’ve re-read the following excerpt countless times because it captures an idea that has enormous explanatory power. I know it’s a bit long, but trust me, it’s worth it:

Dara Horn continues:

… As a graduate student who was simultaneously writing novels, I read this and patted myself on the back. See, I wasn’t just procrastinating on my dissertation; I was inventing a coherent world! But I very quickly saw the problem. This idea of religion imposing coherence on the world sounded absolutely nothing like the religion I knew best. Kermode’s argument is based on the idea that Western religion is all about “endings.” As he puts it, “The Bible is a familiar model of history. It begins at the beginning with the words ‘In the beginning,’ and it ends with a vision of the end, with the words, ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’” Needless to say, this is not how the Hebrew Bible ends.

What happens when the Christian Story meets the Jewish one?

Take a look at the short video below. It’s a scene from the movie Adaptation, in which Charlie Kaufman (played by Nic Cage), a screenwriter suffering from writer’s block, attends a workshop led by screenwriting legend Robert McKee (played by Brian Cox).

Buckle up:

Why is Robert McKee so angry?

It’s a fool’s errand to offer a unified theory that answers the question: Why anti-Semitism? Yet Robert McKee’s profane tantrum is revealing.

Kaufman asks: What if real life doesn’t fit the narrative template you have taught thousands of aspiring screenwriters for decades — dramatic stories with beginnings, middles, and endings? What if real life doesn’t satisfy what Frank Kermode called our “desire for consonance”? In other words: What if the real world is more like the Jewish Story than the Christian one?

McKee replies:

Food for thought.

---