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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Retsof on June 11, 2009, 02:18:18 pm

Title: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Retsof on June 11, 2009, 02:18:18 pm
You likely all know what the fourth wall is, the barrier between a fictional univers and this one.  It is refered to as "breaking the fourth wall" when a fictional charicter knows they are in a work of fiction.  But something is bugging me,  I've never heard of a first, second, or third wall.  So do they exist?  And if not, why is the fourth wall called the fourth wall.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: General Battuta on June 11, 2009, 02:19:12 pm
Well, I'm guessing you could think of it as a stage, which typically has three walls as part of the set. If a character turns to speak through the 'fourth wall', they're addressing the audience.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Retsof on June 11, 2009, 02:27:43 pm
Hmmm  That makes sense, thanks for clearing that up.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Ghostavo on June 11, 2009, 02:41:08 pm
Well, I'm guessing you could think of it as a stage, which typically has three walls as part of the set. If a character turns to speak through the 'fourth wall', they're addressing the audience.

It's exactly that. The expression comes from the theater as you might have guessed.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Mobius on June 11, 2009, 05:33:17 pm
It was very common at the time of the Romans. Actors used to talk with the public and ask for advice.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: BloodEagle on June 11, 2009, 07:50:19 pm
How this thread appeared when TV-Tropes was just cited is beyond me. :/

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourthWall
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on June 12, 2009, 02:28:18 am
/me says goodbye to a portion of the remnants of his life for checking BloodEagle's link.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Scotty on June 12, 2009, 01:56:18 pm
No!  Must...Resist...Link!

I can't do it.
Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Sushi on June 12, 2009, 02:24:35 pm
Actually, TVTropes annoys me.

I guess I just don't like the idea of arbitrarily crowdsourcing taxonomies for subjective ideas. IMO it leads to overfitting, confusion, and lame memes.

Title: Re: The Fourth Wall ... So where are the other three?
Post by: Crazy_Ivan80 on June 15, 2009, 01:59:20 pm
It was very common at the time of the Romans. Actors used to talk with the public and ask for advice.

yes, though post-roman european (western) theatre didn't evolve out of classical theatre. There's no formal link between the two until the time that theatremakers start studying classical works.
Western theatre as it came to be is a wholly medieval product as it where.