The Vegas shooting story

[Quillwitch]

Ok this thread is not meant to be political in any way so please refrain from politics. And I mean no disresepect to those who lost their lives BUT--

I would like to draw your attention to the "story" that is being created around the incident, a quite good detective/thriller/whodun it/ spy story ( or whatever you want to fill in the blank with). I, for one, am obscenely fascinated by it.
As it stands, there are many plot holes to the story ( 1 shooter or 2 or more, ISIS, Loner, drugs, gun distribution, false flag? Seriously, just searching youtube will bring up so many theories, so many loose ends, so many characters to this story that may or may not be red herrings. There hasn´t been such a great conspiracy whodunit story since the Kennedys. Even the archetypes are there!

Watching the videos have actually helped me to understand how a story is built, and how every character has their version, every character plays their part, how backstory is important ( after the action takes place), and how red herrings can throw the story off kilter so easily. It´s especially interesting how from a patchwork of information, your brain puts it all together to create a multilayered story.

Do other see this as well, or is it just me?

 

[Kitty]

The biggest gap in this story as far as I can see is motivation. Character motivation is key to any story and every crime has a motive. Why did he do this, and if he was unhinged what brought him to this point? An interesting question of human psychology. Of course plenty of scope for conspiracy theories too!

 

[MaryA]

@Quillwitch, I sometimes bookmark news events to serve as possible plot ideas. It often helps me to go back once the dust has settled because when an event is still being processed, I don't know enough and the versions are fluid but unfinished. As @Kitty says, the absence of motivation is puzzling. I was reading posts on this on a bigger forum yesterday and somebody posted who lives in Las Vegas, still shocked and frightened because she had planned to attend that concert. She believes the shooter had an accomplice. It's all still very raw and 'unprocessed' for many people and that is what intrigues me too, those multiple and conflicting possibilities, the 'aftershock' of why, how, what next.

Certain events, tragic or grotesque, capture the public imagination and stay with us for years. An archetype comes into play and that contributes to the alchemy of the story. How we come to create a 'story' is so mysterious.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Wikipedia's page on Conspiracy Theory serves as a good explanation of a phenomenon that's bred in the fertile environment on the internet. Political scientist Michael Barkun is referenced in the article, and what he says about conspiracy theory points out how impossible it is to halt theories once they start:

"Another common feature is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them, so that they become, as Barkun writes, a closed system that is unfalsifiable, and therefore "a matter of faith rather than proof."

To my mind rolleyes conspiracy theories are a symptom of a deep-seated realisation in people about how dreadful any rulers are. The notion that good, benevolent and honest people come to power is plainly nonsense. It's always the best liars, backed by dishonest members of the wealthy elite who force themselves into positions where they control the fates of millions. Deep down, we all know that, so we look for lies in official explanations.

A good online venue for examining some of the wilder ideas about what happens in life is World Truth TV:

Front

The mysterious 'Eddie', who runs the site, posts stories that are a bewildering mix of astute research on actual scientific breakthroughs, long discredited urban legends and stuff that sounds like the insane rantings of lunatics. I subscribe to his daily newsletter, and I open it knowing that I'll need to take a pinch of salt with everything I read. I've sometimes had the thought, that the site is American government backed, there as a source of misinformation.

My first thought, on hearing about the supposed shooter at the Las Vegas concert, was that he was a patsy—as with Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy assassination.

 

[Quillwitch]

The biggest gap in this story as far as I can see is motivation. Character motivation is key to any story and every crime has a motive. Why did he do this, and if he was unhinged what brought him to this point? An interesting question of human psychology. Of course plenty of scope for conspiracy theories too!

And doesn´t that make it all the more exciting? Humans really love guessing games, and that´s something worth noticing as a writer.

 

[Quillwitch]

@Quillwitch, I sometimes bookmark news events to serve as possible plot ideas. It often helps me to go back once the dust has settled because when an event is still being processed, I don't know enough and the versions are fluid but unfinished. As @Kitty says, the absence of motivation is puzzling. I was reading posts on this on a bigger forum yesterday and somebody posted who lives in Las Vegas, still shocked and frightened because she had planned to attend that concert. She believes the shooter had an accomplice. It's all still very raw and 'unprocessed' for many people and that is what intrigues me too, those multiple and conflicting possibilities, the 'aftershock' of why, how, what next.

Certain events, tragic or grotesque, capture the public imagination and stay with us for years. An archetype comes into play and that contributes to the alchemy of the story. How we come to create a 'story' is so mysterious.

I think the absence of motivation is actually a huge plot twist we may never see resolved. You have to listen to the brother and the "neighbors". There is much more than meets the eye.

 

[Quillwitch]

Wikipedia's page on Conspiracy Theory serves as a good explanation of a phenomenon that's bred in the fertile environment on the internet. Political scientist Michael Barkun is referenced in the article, and what he says about conspiracy theory points out how impossible it is to halt theories once they start:

"Another common feature is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them, so that they become, as Barkun writes, a closed system that is unfalsifiable, and therefore "a matter of faith rather than proof."

To my mind rolleyes conspiracy theories are a symptom of a deep-seated realisation in people about how dreadful any rulers are. The notion that good, benevolent and honest people come to power is plainly nonsense. It's always the best liars, backed by dishonest members of the wealthy elite who force themselves into positions where they control the fates of millions. Deep down, we all know that, so we look for lies in official explanations.

A good online venue for examining some of the wilder ideas about what happens in life is World Truth TV:

Front

The mysterious 'Eddie', who runs the site, posts stories that are a bewildering mix of astute research on actual scientific breakthroughs, long discredited urban legends and stuff that sounds like the insane rantings of lunatics. I subscribe to his daily newsletter, and I open it knowing that I'll need to take a pinch of salt with everything I read. I've sometimes had the thought, that the site is American government backed, there as a source of misinformation.

My first thought, on hearing about the supposed shooter at the Las Vegas concert, was that he was a patsy—as with Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy assassination.

Goes to show you also how the human brain craves stories ( in this case conspiracy stories) and how important these new myths are for the society we live in.

 

[Amber]

Ok this thread is not meant to be political in any way so please refrain from politics. And I mean no disresepect to those who lost their lives BUT--

I would like to draw your attention to the "story" that is being created around the incident, a quite good detective/thriller/whodun it/ spy story ( or whatever you want to fill in the blank with). I, for one, am obscenely fascinated by it.
As it stands, there are many plot holes to the story ( 1 shooter or 2 or more, ISIS, Loner, drugs, gun distribution, false flag? Seriously, just searching youtube will bring up so many theories, so many loose ends, so many characters to this story that may or may not be red herrings. There hasn´t been such a great conspiracy whodunit story since the Kennedys. Even the archetypes are there!

Watching the videos have actually helped me to understand how a story is built, and how every character has their version, every character plays their part, how backstory is important ( after the action takes place), and how red herrings can throw the story off kilter so easily. It´s especially interesting how from a patchwork of information, your brain puts it all together to create a multilayered story.

Do other see this as well, or is it just me?

I saw it. It took me a few days to watch the news story but then I couldn't help making something up to explain why he would do it. It isn't the most redeeming thing I've ever done. So, I've only shared it with one person and I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes.

 

[Quillwitch]

I saw it. It took me a few days to watch the news story but then I couldn't help making something up to explain why he would do it. It isn't the most redeeming thing I've ever done. So, I've only shared it with one person and I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes.

You see what I mean, then. The human brain is wired to actually want to create stories and we are always trying to fill in the blanks. Translated to novels, we have to keep the reader constantly guessing.

I´ve got my own explanations, and though it did feel good to go ah! bingo! a part of me is dying to know the truth--a truth we will probably never know. Ah, the beauty of it.

 

[Amber]

You see what I mean, then. The human brain is wired to actually want to create stories and we are always trying to fill in the blanks. Translated to novels, we have to keep the reader constantly guessing.

I´ve got my own explanations, and though it did feel good to go ah! bingo! a part of me is dying to know the truth--a truth we will probably never know. Ah, the beauty of it.

Right. I did feel better and I can't help wondering if I'm right but... its kind of not about me.

 

[Quillwitch]

Right. I did feel better and I can't help wondering if I'm right but... its kind of not about me.

Or everything about you. Man as a species began to tell stories as a way of protecting themselves from what was out there. Many of those stories were about what they feared, and what they should be wary of out in the world. I think we are no different today. We tell stories to learn about the world and about ourselves.

 

[Amber]

Or everything about you. Man as a species began to tell stories as a way of protecting themselves from what was out there. Many of those stories were about what they feared, and what they should be wary of out in the world. I think we are no different today. We tell stories to learn about the world and about ourselves.

Oh okay. Maybe. Yes, that's a very interesting way of thinking about it.

 

[Luciferette]

Nature and novelists abhor a vacuum. I think we spend so long plotting, studying character motivations etc that we have a tendency to fill in gaps in stories with ever-more complicated twists. I know I did this with the above event -- dreadfully ghoulish, I admit -- but we might never know the WHY "in real life".
We have a saying in the East Riding: "Folk don't know nowt, and what they don't know they mek up." Very true.

 

[Quillwitch]

Another thing we can learn from this is NOT to spoon feed readers everything, but rather give them space and reasons to let their minds run wild.