[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP weather

[Iggy McSnurd]

No: HPFGUIDX 90197

> Bookworm:
> Unless you think about what a McGuffin is:
> 
> McGuffin (aka: MacGuffin or maguffin) is a term for a Plot Enabling
> Device, i.e. a device or plot element in a movie that is
> deliberately placed to catch the viewer's attention and/or drive the
> logic of the plot, but which actually serves no further purpose - it
> won't pop up again later, it won't explain the ending, it won't
> actually do anything except possibly distract you while you try to
> figure out its significance.
> 
> Sound familiar? <g>
> 
> Ravenclaw Bookworm

Iggy here:

A bit of additional info on McGuffin.

The McGuffin device was originated by Alfred Hitchcock in one of his
movies (I, unfortunately, don't remember which... it was one of his
espionage thrillers.)  It was placed in the film as something designed
to deliberately mislead the audience into thinking that the device
itself was a main plot point.

It's similar to a red herring, but is actually used more as a central
aspect rather than a peripheral one.  Hitchcock used the concept with
such brilliance and style that it became a popular term for a
deliberately misleading aspect of a movie.  (It worked its way,
eventually, into popular enough terminology that it was added into the
dictionary.)

Iggy McSnurd