Adventure fiction

Adventure fiction is a genre of fiction in which an adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, forms the main storyline.

History

Critic Don D'Ammassa, in the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction defines the genre as follows:

D'Ammassa argues that adventure stories make the element of danger the focus; hence he argues that Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed, whereas Dickens' Great Expectations is not because "Pip's encounter with the convict is an adventure, but that scene is only a device to advance the main plot, which is not truly an adventure."

Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a first set of adventures before he met his lady. A separation would follow, with a second set of adventures leading to a final reunion.

Adventure Story

Adventure Story is a 1949 play by the English dramatist Terence Rattigan. The play tells the story of Alexander the Great and his conquests.

In this play Rattigan portrays the historical Alexander faithfully, at the same time revealing that his life was what it was because he was the kind of person who very well might have wept because nothing remained to conquer.

The play focuses on the transformation of Alexander after his conquest of Persia from a military adventurist to an uncompromising despot with grand vision of a world empire which estranges him from his erstwhile friends. Driven by a deep-felt insecurity, he has to kill people close to him including even the father figure Cleitus. He tries to justify his actions in the name of his dreams of the world empire, but is haunted by loneliness in the end

The play holds a deeper significance, that the conquests of Alexander were actually trials to find himself and achieve spiritual enlightenment, through becoming a god (see Theosis).

Tom Sawyer

Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters.

The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant fireman named Tom Sawyer with whom Twain was acquainted in San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth, "Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: ‘I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.’ ‘Go ahead, Sam,’ I said, ‘but don’t disgrace my name.’" Twain himself said the character sprang from three people, later identified as: John B. Briggs (who died in 1907), William Bowen (who died in 1893) and Twain; however Twain later changed his story saying Sawyer was fully formed solely from his imagination, but as Robert Graysmith says, "The great appropriator liked to pretend his characters sprang fully grown from his fertile mind."

Bedtime story

A bedtime story is a traditional form of storytelling, where a story is told to a child at bedtime to prepare the child for sleep.

Bedtime stories have many advantages, for parents/adults and children alike. The fixed routine of a bedtime story before sleeping has a relaxing effect, and the soothing voice of a person telling a story allows for a calm atmosphere in which the child can fall asleep more easily. The emotional aspect creates a bond between the storyteller and the listener, often a parent and child.

Bedtime stories can be read from a book, or may be invented by the storyteller. The stories tend to be short, with a happy ending. A different form of bedtime reading uses longer stories, but divides them up, thus creating cliffhangers. Children will look forward to their bedtime story, and a fixed routine is installed.

External links

The Adventure

"The Adventure" is a song by the American rock band Angels & Airwaves. It was the lead single from their debut studio album, We Don't Need to Whisper (2006), released on Geffen Records.

The song received increased attention when it aired on a Smallville trailer. After the season finale of Smallville aired, "The Adventure" climbed to #30 on Amazon.

During concerts, DeLonge has often used both "Down" and "I Miss You" by Blink-182 as part of an extended intro to the song. The track was played in the crowd warm-up session before Barack Obama's presidential election rallies in 2008.

"The Adventure" is also featured as downloadable content in the karaoke game Lips and in the music game Rock Band. It is also a playable song in the music game Band Hero.

The song was also featured on a Ford and X-Play commercial.

Track listing

Acoustic version

An acoustic version of "The Adventure" appears as a B-side on the "Everything's Magic" single.