# What are the seven basic literary plots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 15, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679 "2020-06-15T00:53:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/1 "2020-06-15T00:53:59Z")
[What are the seven basic literary plots?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2366/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/) Ronald Tobias attributed the idea of 69 plots to Kipling. For those who enjoy Kipling (and it was probably mentioned at the time), here is the reference: > [@In the Neolithic Age](#): > > Here’s my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose And the reindeer roamed where Paris roars to-night:-- "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, “And–every–single–one–of–them–is–right!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/2 "2020-06-15T12:46:27Z")
That sounds to me like a figurative way of saying “many”, not an enumeration of a specific list. Nor is it clear to me that a “way of constructing tribal lays” is a plot. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/3 "2020-06-17T13:41:31Z")
The number of story plots that exist is an many as you want to categorize them into, based on your interpretation or in terms of granularity. In the simplest form, there is only one story. It has a beginning and entropy. (the Never Ending Story is a lie!). "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays". I don't think it is accidental that he came up with the number 69, for "tribal lays". Is it? That would be extraordinary. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/4 "2020-06-17T23:41:54Z")
That’s easy: Man vs man Man vs himself Man vs nature Man vs zombie Man in VR simulation of the real world vs AI where he needs to decide between his true love in the “real world” vs a virtual approximation of his lost love. Netflix Disney ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/5 "2020-06-18T00:43:21Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > The number of story plots that exist is an many as you want to categorize them into, based on your interpretation or in terms of granularity. In the simplest form, there is only one story. It has a beginning and entropy. (the Never Ending Story is a lie!). > > "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays". I don't think it is accidental that he came up with the number 69, for "tribal lays". Is it? That would be extraordinary. _In the Neolithic age_ was published in 1892, decades before the first known appearance of _lay_ in the sexual sense (and it first turns up in American English). ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/6 "2020-06-18T08:30:56Z")
Of course, everything started in the USA. Perhaps check out the King James Bible circa 1611? Many examples of lay/lie used in a copulation sense. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/7 "2020-06-18T13:41:04Z")
The KJV refers to someone or something as a lay? ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/8 "2020-06-18T16:12:27Z")
Wait. People think Kipling was talking about ‘someone’ when he said “There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays”? I don’t see that at all. He was definitely talking about something though, as the bible does too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/9 "2020-06-23T00:30:59Z")
Some people evidently cannot distinguish nouns from verbs. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lantern2/32/3010_2.png) [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/10 "2020-06-24T06:16:29Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Of course, everything started in the USA. Perhaps check out the King James Bible circa 1611? Many examples of lay/lie used in a copulation sense. > **[Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made… | Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50386/sonnet-138-when-my-love-swears-that-she-is-made-of-truth)** > > When my love swears that she is made of truth, Shakespeare too in one of his most famous sonnets. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/11 "2020-06-25T16:21:28Z")
> **[Google Answers: The Seven Main Plots in All of Literature = ???](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=210539)** [https://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html](https://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html) ### 7 Plots 7 basic plots as remembered from second grade by IPL volunteer librarian Jessamyn West: 1. [wo]man vs. nature 2. [wo]man vs. [wo]man 3. [wo]man vs. the environment 4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology 5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural 6. [wo]man vs. self 7. [wo]man vs. god/religion ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/12 "2020-06-27T19:57:41Z")
Heinlein said there were 3 basic plots: 1. Boy meets girl (romance, substitute genders of your choice) 2. The Little Tailor (Person comes from low status and achieves great power. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Kim’, the movie Trading Places are examples) 3. The person who learned better. (Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ for example) I’m not that’s complete enough, but it’s interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-seven-basic-literary-plots/855679/13 "2020-10-14T16:24:39Z")
The way I heard it: Man vs. Self Man vs. Beast Man vs. Nature Man vs. Single opponent (Man vs. Man) Man vs. Woman (romance) Man vs. Society Man vs. God