Deus Ex Machina

[Graeme]

The term has evolved to mean a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the inspired and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. Depending on how it is done, it can be intended to allow a story to continue when the writer has "painted himself into a corner" and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or as a comedic device

With a classic example being the climax of the film Jurassic Park where our four heroes are faced off vs two deadly velociraptors, when from out of stage right waltzs in T-Rex and saves the day.

With zero foreshadowing, I mean really, T-Rex was just hanging around the buildings when there are whole fields of Brontosaurus steaks walking about in nearby paddocks...

And then recently I finished Salem's Lot, and no lesser master than Stephen King walks one of his main support characters into an inescapable trap and then gets him out via the sudden availability of a highly specialised skill set and mental discipline that normally takes decades to master - all in a boy on the verge of puberty with no foreshadowing beyond besting a school yard bully.

Authors can throw any number of "bad luck" events at their heroes, the guards at the gate get doubled on the night of the mission, they land off course, their commander is an asshat, their equipment get's lost in a storm, their gun jambs, and their guide dog eats their plans and then chokes to death.

And it's all just challenge to spice up the story.

But if the hero gets an unexpected break, it's an unbelievable co-incidence and stands out like a sore thumb.

So what is it about a Deus Ex Machina?

Clearly Steven Spielberg and Stephen King are comfortable using the device in drama, and it can be used artfully in comedy as referenced in the wiki link above.

What do you think, something to be used or avoided? And if used, what are the traps and pitfalls?

[Kent]

I figure that there is a direct correlation between the magnitude of the troublesome situation and the ridiculousness of the solution.

The two examples you gave fit quite well. Velociraptors and an inescapable trap are about as serious as trouble gets. Interestingly, the t-rex solution is probably more realistic than, say, a human solution.

Overall, I think the device can work, but I would be wary of the trouble that requires such a device. And if I would use it, I would definitely make sure the solution has at least an iota of plausibility.

[Graeme]

Hi Kent, I think it's risky.

I was surprised to see SK use it in Salem's lot, it blew me out of my immersion in the story and cost him a star on my review.

It's a howler.

[Rachel]

I happen to know Deus Ex Machina was literally a god being raised into the sky by a mechanism and fixing any problems left in the story. My advice: if the story is realistic, don't use it. If it's fantasy or scifi, you can consider it but be subtle and make sure it fits.

I mean... I make gods fix problems in my books because that's how that world works. Haha.

[Kent]

Hi Graeme,

Agreed. And I can see how it feels like a cop out by the author.

Rachel makes a good point..."if the story is realistic, don't use it."

I haven't read any SK, but I've always thought of his stories as bordering on the unrealistic and, therefore, open to literary devices that us mere mortals shouldn't mess around with.

[Graeme]

My basic genre is Urban Fantasy - so, for me it's something to look out for.

[Nik]

Authors care about credibility and realism, the reality - doesn't -:)
There are lots of action movies where a human or a superhero wipes out scores of people/machines/ whatever and escapes a few unescapable traps. Some are silly and unbelievable, some are cool. However what I think silly, may be perceived differently by someone else. I think it's a question of taste. Don't remember whether I read Salem's lot, but, if anything Jurassic is not a bad example.

[Ian]

I think it is a really bad idea, and show the author is just plain lazy for not providing clues earlier as to haw (s)he was to get out of the situation. The Jurassic Park example is silly. So a T rex takes out the velociraptors; why doesn't it then take out the humans?

[Graeme]

Ian wrote: "I think it is a really bad idea, and show the author is just plain lazy for not providing clues earlier as to haw (s)he was to get out of the situation. The Jurassic Park example is silly. So a T r..."

Because the humans run nimbly out of the building, where the rest of the survivors are sitting in a jeep waiting to wisk them away.

[Ian]

Yes, and why doesn't the T Rex start with the humans in the jeep? The raptors can wait.

[Graeme]

The jeep is just darn lucky, or sumpthin...

[Quantum]

Rachel wrote: "I happen to know Deus Ex Machina was literally a god being raised into the sky by a mechanism and fixing any problems left in the story. My advice: if the story is realistic, don't use it. If it's ..."

Thank you, Rachel, for that excellent historical point.

if there was one thing that you'd think that storytellers would learn over the course of almost 2,500 years, it would be to absolutely not use deus ex machina. apparently, those offenders ought to reread Poetics:

"Clearly, the explication of a story should issue from the story itself, and not from a deus ex machina as in the Medea, or in the departure from scene in the Iliad. A deus ex machina may be used for events outside of the play--for past events beyond human ken, or subsequent events that can only be described in prophecy--since we believe that the gods are all-seeing. But there should not be anything implausible in the events themselves; or if there is, it should be outside the play, as with Sophocles' Oedipus."
(Poetics, 1454b)

In my bookshelf, Poetics stands next to my copy of The Elements of Style (which my daughter calls "Skunk and White") and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print.

[Graeme]

Alex G wrote: "Thank you, Rachel, for that excellent historical point.

if there was one thing that you'd think that storytellers would learn over the course of almost 2,500 years, it would be to absolutely not use deus ex machina. apparently, those offenders ought to reread Poetics:.."

LOL.