tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023519653976035588.post8680820502134518673..comments2024-01-30T02:37:26.307-08:00Comments on The Science of Story: The Subtext of Character GrowthWindy Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382452185388293994noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023519653976035588.post-73420550574771019592012-06-29T05:32:40.042-07:002012-06-29T05:32:40.042-07:00Thanks dave good answer. I won't trouble you a...Thanks dave good answer. I won't trouble you any more.This may not be new thinking but it's new to me, and i feel a bit bitter because i wasn't told it earlier.Someone said to me, want to write an article? Well say what you are going to say, say it, then say what you've just said.<br /><br />As soon as i had that key ot was easy for me.<br /><br />Like wise as a twelve year old trying to write fiction i would probably begin. Fred was thirteen he had brown hair and wore glasses.He fancied Karen.Karen didn't fancy him....<br /><br />What i'm trying to say is that i would blatt on with description.If only someone had told me about the inciting incident, about act two playing out the permutations, and the act three an ending resolution that i had already thought of, then it would have been easy- easier- and better.<br /><br />I should have been taught this as part of english class.Perhaps you should think up a teaching module for it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023519653976035588.post-60238542061682303142012-06-29T03:37:40.800-07:002012-06-29T03:37:40.800-07:00Hi Clive. There is a much-researched difference be...Hi Clive. There is a much-researched difference between the truth of an event and the presentation of that event in plot form.<br /><br />If there is no difference between the two, this is straightforward information exchange. A story exists when the receiver of the narrative is forced by the wording to use his own mind and interpret the information. In my own story theory, this occurs ONLY when Knowledge Gaps are crafted into the telling. <br /><br />Knowledge gaps in a narrative force interpretation and turn it into a story; and this mechanism can clearly be seen in the differences you outline in the V for Victory example. Note, this doesn't mean the receiver of the narrative is being lied to - it could be propaganda, or it could equally be a compelling way of presenting the truth - but a story exists as soon as an interpretation is required. <br /><br />There is a case for saying that, as language is a limitating factor itself, all narratives are interpretations, but there we find ourselves getting into beautiful but very deep water! <br /><br />Clearly, I can't map it all out here, but what you are discovering for yourself is not new thinking. If you'd like to know more, look up Diegesis and Mimesis (Aristotle/Plato); Fabula and Syuzhet (Russian Formalists); Hermeneutic Phenomenology (German Ontology); Semiotics (Linguistics - read Saussure); or Connotation and Denotation (modern Narratology) - it's all broadly the same subject!Windy Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01382452185388293994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023519653976035588.post-28565208213651581602012-06-29T02:17:33.012-07:002012-06-29T02:17:33.012-07:00(Clive)
Been thinking further about this.The hook ...(Clive)<br />Been thinking further about this.The hook for the bbc news story is - the inspiration behind the film escape to victory-.But there isn't any connection between the occupied city of Kiev and allied prisoners escaping from a german POW camp.The tenent is that the soviets subsequently mistold the story for their own ends.They said that the 'death match' players played and won, and in a fury a rematch was ordered in four days time and they warned not to win this.They did win and were shot the next day as a result.<br /><br />The bbc claim that inn fact only four were shot soon after, and that several others were tortured or shot much later.The bbc angle seems to be that the soviet interpretation is nearly as bad as the original crime.And yet the bbc is itself linking this to an uplifting film where everyone lives and escapes.<br /><br />The germans would say the players were not shot because of the football match.They shot lots of people 31,709 jewish people on the first day of occupation.And lot's of others for not having a job or suspicion of being partisan.<br /><br />Viewed through the lens of story structure- as opposed to truth or human tragedy or propoganda versus honest reporting versus a hollywood interpretation- it seems to me that they are all- bbc- soviets-germans-hollywood- survivors- trying to sell something?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023519653976035588.post-79025899867493935042012-06-28T23:40:08.145-07:002012-06-28T23:40:08.145-07:00(clive)
Hey dave- still reading your story book- g...(clive)<br />Hey dave- still reading your story book- going slow because i'm trying to take it all in.I think you've done a really good job because it feels as if i already knew all this stuff but just needed reminding.<br /><br />I'm at the part as above about subtext, and i've had an idea for a new bit of story theory.<br /><br />The bbc is carrying a story about fcstart the inspiration for the film v for victory.The soviets said the germans shot the players because they won.<br /><br />I was also thinking of how hitch and others liked to tell a big story through a little one.Often the narrator is the least likely person.<br /><br />So my idea for a new bit of story theory is above the story you are telling a sort of hyper subtext (you'll have to think of a word for this) where the import of the story is not below, but above the story you seem to be telling.In other words the football match is about the second world war.<br /><br />My suggestion is that this is catergory that needs defining- and given it's own word.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com