From: alan taylor (yoame_at_wolfenet.com)
Date: 24 June 1998
Sorry Len, I gotta differ with you here.
Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote in part:
> Does the storyteller determine the quality of the story?
> A storyteller determines the quality of the presentation.
> I posit, some stories have intrinsic qualities and these are
> worth isolating. Myths for example, can be retold and
> repackaged in many forms, times, sets, and settings
> and will usually get the same reactions.
>
> Len
Myths do have an intrinsic quality to them, but how many thousands of parables can easily be boiled down to an abridged version of "Do unto others..." or "Kindness is rewarded in the end..." Ever hear a 5-year old try to tell a good joke?
Storytellers can make _all_ the difference. Presentation matters a great deal. The quality of presentation affects the impact of the myth or story to a great deal. How many people went to see "Titanic" and didn't know how the story went? I was moved by the story specifically _because_ of the quality of the storytelling in the movie. I think it would be really hard to compartmentalize the pathos, despair and tragedy of a story like that into forms, times, sets, etc, and hope to have nearly the same impact as the movie. Who knows.
What about a different sort of Interactive Fiction. The simultaneous thread-set, or skein of storylines. No branching or decision points, each thread is distinct, and exists from beginning to end, and interrelates with every other thread. "Titanic" might be an interesting exercise - a spatially limited set of characters interacting and pointed toward a very specific and emotional denouement (where's that "denouement button"?). The viewer (watcher, reader, whatever) could experience the tragedy from any one of a thousand viewpoints - 3rd party, first person, etc. But they'd choose at first, or be randomly assigned as a passenger, and would follow from beginning to end.
That's actually two messages, but c'est la vie.
-Alan Taylor
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