Markup View

Author: surgoshan

Jun 20th 2012 at 6:56:09 AM

InMediasRes and HowWeGotHere can both be framing devices.

InMediasRes can be "start at the middle, go back to the beginning, then wrap it up", in which case it's a framing device. You can in fact set the middle opening so late in the story that it's just a modified "I'm here to tell you a story" frame, only the author might dispense with the hero (or narrator) telling the story and rely on the medium making the flashback nature of the frame clear (ie. "three weeks earlier", with a swish-pan).

However, InMediasRes need not qualify; KillBill Vol 1 begins IMR, then flashes back to the beginning, then catches up to the opening, but the film ends, and Vol 2 picks up where 1 left off. Whereas PulpFiction definitely begins IMR, but doesn't count as a framing device because it's really two stories only tangentially related through a tertiary character told in AnachronicOrder.

A FramingDevice bookends your main story. AscendedFrameStory would be when the back half of the frame has its own climactic event, or even the ''only'' climax of the entire story. If the kid goes to FantasyLand and comes back with confidence, which he only demonstrates by making a sweet jump with his bike... not an Ascended Frame. If he makes that sweet jump, then deals with his bullies, then stands firm to his overbearing parents, then deals with the mean teacher... that still might not qualify, unless one of those is clearly his ''principal'' antagonist and the resolution clearly a climactic event.

In short, the back half of the frame cannot be a mere coda, epilogue, or single chapter. It has to be multiple chapters indicating that the main thread of the story should be considered to have occurred within the frame. It's a judgment call, of course, but a good rule of thumb: ForrestGump, ascended frame, ThePagemaster, not an ascended frame.

It'll need a better example than ThePagemaster; I doubt that's popular enough to be a good example.