I've Been Framed!

A "framing device" is something used in books, TV, and movies as a way to anchor and provide context for the rest of the story.  It can also provide familiarity to a reader or viewer if it's used in multiple stories/episodes.  Think of The Twilight Zone, where Rod Serling as the narrator framed every episode.  It provided familiarity for the viewer and also reminded us that we were watching a story.  You wouldn't want people to freak out like the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast.  Remakes of the series and similar shows like Tales From the Crypt used a similar device.

Another good example is the book and movie The Princess Bride.  The movie features an old man (Peter Falk) telling the story of the princess bride to his grandson (Fred Savage).  This provides the anchor for viewers and again lets us know that we're watching a story.

Since I've been watching it a bit in the last 6 months, Mystery Science Theater 3000 used the framing device of a guy being trapped in space and building robots to watch bad movies with him.  Over the 10-year run the framing device had to keep changing as the cast changed.  The first six seasons featured a human guy on the Satellite of Love and his robot pals Tom Servo, Crow T Robot, Gypsy, and Cambot.  Most of the first four seasons featured original show creator Joel Hodgson but after he left the show they brought in head writer Michael J Nelson for the rest of the show's run.  The first season featured the evil Dr. Forrester and a henchman named Larry, but for the next five years or so the henchman was TV's Frank.  Then TV's Frank left and for a season it was Dr. Forrester and his mother.  When the show moved to Sci-Fi Channel and Trace Beaulieu (who was Dr. Forrester and the voice of Crow) left, the framing device went through a few incarnations featuring a descendant of Dr. Forrester named Pearl, a telepathic alien, and a super-intelligent monkey.  You can always tell which season it is just by watching the opening song because they had to keep changing the words to fit the new story.  Similar shows like Elvira, Svengoolie, and Monstervision all had their own framing devices revolving around a host and often a supporting cast of colorful characters.

Like MST3K I created a framing device that evolved over time, though not because of cast changes.  It's not something I really had ever used before in writing.  When I started writing the 24 Hour Gender Swap series, I created a framing device in the character of Mrs. Vantu, the mysterious sorta-Gypsy woman who provides the gender swap potions and charms for each story.  So the first story--24 Hour Woman--starts out in first-person with a woman talking about her terrible sexist boss.  And then Mrs. Vantu sells her a potion.

In that first story there were a couple of details then that would carry forward.  Basically her entire house is frozen in time in the early 60s.  And that includes the woman herself.  And for whatever reason she has a lot of Elvis stuff around:  an ashtray, pictures, a pink Cadillac in the driveway, and even a Basset hound named Aaron.  (You know, a hound dog?  And Aaron is Elvis's middle name.)

In the second story a young girl named Margot buys a potion to turn her sister's ex into a bimbo.  At the end, Mrs. Vantu agrees to train Margot in the mystic arts--in exchange for Margot running errands and walking the dog.

In the third story a cop goes to Mrs. Vantu to buy a potion that turns him into a young woman so he can go undercover as a hooker in the hope of flushing out a serial killer.  At the end, Mrs. Vantu gets a portion of the reward for the killer's capture and a mention in the newspaper about her assistance, though nothing is said about gender swapping.

So then in the fourth story a burglar decides to break into her place now that she's flush with cash.  But he knocks over a potion that turns him into a little girl.

The world of the framing device was evolving, but the sixth book, 24 Hour Goth Girl kicked it up a notch.  It begins with an overly religious boy named Raleigh coming to Mrs. Vantu's house to stop her from practicing "black magic."  Mrs. Vantu in turn tricks Raleigh into drinking one of her potions.  It turns him into his polar opposite--a Goth girl.  (What a shock from the title, right?)

Mrs. Vantu sends Raleigh home with Margot, but after they're accosted on a bus, they wind up in a graveyard at night.  They meet another Goth girl named Eva, who takes them to a mausoleum owned by Mrs. Vantu.  Inside the mausoleum is a crypt for her brother, Ezra.  Raleigh and Eva start to hit it off, even making out.  Then later Eva reveals that she is actually Mrs. Vantu!

She tells Raleigh a bizarre story:  every new moon, the spirits at the cemetery come out and so Mrs. Vantu uses a potion to make herself young again, about the same age she was when her brother died.  And we finally give Mrs. Vantu's tragic origin story.  She grew up in "the Old Country" in Eastern Europe.  But in the late 30s the Nazis rounded up her family--except her and her brother, who sought shelter in the mountains.  Ezra helped Eva get to southern France to escape to America.  Ezra could have gone with her, but he decided to stay and fight the Nazis, though he died in the attempt.  So there's no body in the crypt, just an old doll that Ezra played with when he was little, which Mrs. Vantu uses as a totem to contact his spirit.

After learning all this, Raleigh doesn't want to be with Eva anymore since tomorrow she'll turn back into a middle-aged woman who's actually about 85 years old.  Raleigh makes nice with Margot to the point that when the potion is going to wear off, Raleigh decides she wants to be a girl forever.  She goes back to Mrs. Vantu's house, but she's still young Eva.  And while Mrs. Vantu is a wise, mature woman, Eva is a bit of a spiteful bitch.  She gives Raleigh a potion to make her a girl permanently, but instead of a Goth girl she turns out to be a nerd who has to go back to middle school.

In the next couple of stories, Mrs. Vantu's dog Aaron is dying and Raleigh becomes his caretaker.  At the end of the eighth book, Mrs. Vantu decides that while reality is being bent by a bickering middle-aged couple becoming young Japanese girls, she might as well save her dog and so Aaron is regnerated as a puppy.

At the start of the ninth book, a guy named Jack is driving in Mrs. Vantu's neighborhood when little Aaron gets out and Jack crashes his car to avoid hitting the dog.  He's badly injured from not wearing his seatbelt, but Raleigh gives him a potion to save his life.  Unfortunately she grabbed the wrong bottle and turns Jack into a little girl she calls Jackie.  As the day goes on, Jackie keeps getting younger.  When Mrs. Vantu finally returns home, she tells them that Raleigh administered the potion too late; Jack was supposed to be dead and so the potion is going to end up killing him so nature can correct itself.

There is a way to save Jack--a really dangerous way.  It's called "guided reincarnation."  Using a potion, Mrs. Vantu could get Raleigh pregnant and then just as Jackie dies, Mrs. Vantu would use a special charm to channel his dying spirit into the fetus.  Months later the baby would be born.  Using a different potion, Mrs. Vantu could age the child at an accelerated rate, so that after about a year Jackie would be the same as before the car accident.

There's just one hitch:  Raleigh uses a different potion to swap bodies with Jackie, not wanting to risk his life.  So now Jackie is a nerdy teenage girl who's impregnated with the fetus that becomes Raleigh.  Pretty fucked up, huh?

Over the next couple of books, Raleigh starts growing up again.  Jackie was kicked out by Raleigh's parents and so she and the baby are living at Mrs. Vantu's house.  Having a baby around--and a puppy and two teenage girls--really cramps Mrs. Vantu's style, especially since she can't smoke inside.

So there you go, the framing device has become a world of its own!  There's another story I've thought of but haven't really gotten around to writing.  The idea would be in the last days of Elvis, Mrs. Vantu sneaks him out of Graceland by turning him into a woman.  Ultimately the King is reborn as a baby girl similar to how Raleigh was reborn.  Part of the reason I haven't tried writing it is I can't really think of a good title.  24 Hours With Elvis?  24 Hours From Graceland?

Anyway, all of the books in the series haven't been released yet so I guess this counts as spoilers.  Not that anyone here will read those.

So, have you ever used a framing device?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Happy Fourth of July!  And belated Canada Day.