Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with narrative

Innovative Book Designs

0bvious — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:37:46 -0800

Innovative Books: I am looking to compile a list of the most innovative uses of the book format. Books that break the mould in their layout and design, perhaps books that use online systems to extend their content value or push their form into new places. I am most interested in narrative and theory, but any book that is interesting (artist books etc.) would be really appreciated. I have a few examples, in order of publication, to set the ball rolling:

Compendium for literates : a system of writing by Karl Gerstner - A book about book form in an innovative form. Beautiful and still fresh

Dictionary of the Khazars: a lexicon novel in 100,000 words by Pavic - a 'dictionary novel' "written in two versions, male and female, which are identical save for seventeen crucial lines"

A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel by Tom Philips - an artist who has used one particular edition of one particular book as a space for his work for many years

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larson - extended use of footnote, side-note and illustration to give the narrative dimension

I would love any ideas you have!

Take this job and love it

Pater Aletheias — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:15:53 -0800

Help me brainstorm! I need a story about a person who has an uninspiring job but does it in a way that makes a difference people's lives. It can be a film, a book, a short story--any kind of narrative. It can be fiction or non-fiction. I just need an illustrative narrative for a project I'm working on. The closest I can come up with is the movie Chocolat, in which the the opening of a chocolate story becomes an opportunity to transform a town. But I need something more grounded and less like a fable--a story that is either true or easily could be.

Thanks!

I need examples of multi-threaded narratives in film and video games.

ga$money — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:46:31 -0800

Looking for multi-threaded narratives in film and video games, such as Pulp Fiction or Go. I'm looking for examples of films that have multi-threaded narratives, particularly ones where the narrative lines loop back to their starting points or intersect with each other. Two examples are Go and Pulp Fiction, where we follow one character's storyline, but it intersects with other storylines or characters that are presented elsewhere in the movie. So we see Jules and Vincent in the background during the opening sequence of Pulp Fiction, when Honey Bunny and Pumpkin discuss holding up the diner. Or in Go, where we see the gay couple at the checkout stand while following the erstwhile drug dealer's storyline. So far as other examples, I have Timecode (though really something different), Run Lola Run (sort of), and Rashomon (sort of, but the whole notion of each character telling the story in flashback mediates the plot device more than I want). I know there are more examples out there, but I'm drawing a blank.

Extra bonus credit if you can give an examples of video games that attempt the same thing.

Believe it or not, this is a work-related question, so I guess I must have a really awesome job.

Aging beatnik narrativist seeks Xbox360 bliss

palmcorder_yajna — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:44:30 -0800

Please recommend some smart, nifty-looking, story-heavy Xbox360 games for an relatively artsy, overly cerebral, 30-something newbie. Hey all,

After a decade and a half of being an almost total FPS and console gaming philistine, I have recently completed Bioshock on the XBox360, and I have fallen in love.

Now what should I play? My husband and I have amassed a pretty decent stash of relatively recent releases, but none of the ones I've tried so far have been even 1/10 as compelling as Bioshock. Can youse guys hope me?

Below, you'll find way too much information about my likes and dislikes. I've decided to err on the side of being too thorough, so feel absolutely free to skim or skip if it's not helpful.

Here is a random sampling of some of my favorite other art/media/literary things, to give you an idea of my tastes:

a) 100 Years of Solitude
b) Alice Munroe
c) Hitherbee Dragons
d) Daniel Pinkwater
e) Max Ernst
f) Louisa May Alcott
g) Edward Albee
h) Maria Sibylla Meriam
i) Heavenly Creatures
j) The Museum of Jurassic Technology
l) James Ellroy's My Dark Places
m) Octavia Butler
n) Joe Lansdale
o) Manuscript Found in Saragossa

Here's what I liked about Bioshock, in order of importance:

1) Excellent story with lots of detail and meat to it

2) Gorgeous, intellectually and aesthetically satisfying visuals, and really swell music.

3) Low friction (I.e., it's easy to get into the game and start having fun. You don't have slaughter boars in the woods for months, or wander around identical-looking levels clicking on every pixel to get the fun started.)

4) Attempt at a moral/ethical dimension (Yes, I know this was half-assed. I give them props for even trying.)

5) Good gameplay for a beginner-- i.e., not a lot of individual limb movement, combos, etc. (I'm willing to learn this stuff, but right now, given that I'm very much a n00b, I'm liking games wherein deficits in muscle memory and dexterity don't utterly stall out the gameplay. )

6) Vague and impressionistic sciencey-ness: The game sort of paid homage to science, but instead of being apologetic about its implausibilities (like, say, Star Trek-TNG), the designers decided to revel in their absurdity (more like, say, Alfred Jarry.) Me likey. Me really likey.

Here are some games that I've recently started, and what I liked (marked "+") and didn't so much like about them (marked with a "-" ):

I) Condemned: +Backstory (i think; I just stared); +metaphysical and crime motifs | -seems to be on rails; -relatively high friction; -desite the fact that this is a crime-solving game, I don't get the sense that there's going to be a whole lot of deduction required; -killing faceless, identical junkies for no good reason (I know it's an FPS, but I'm an (inactive) member of the criminal defense bar! I don't want to shoot these people; I want to get them favorable plea deals and then get them the hell out of my caseload!)

II) Psychonauts: +Story (i think; again, I just started) + pop-surrealist flair | -dexterity puzzles (more frustrating than challenging for me at this point, maybe I'll feel differently in a few months); -Family friendly. Way too family friendly.

III) Mass Effect: +Story, +Character/ethics appear to play a big role; +Dexterity requirements are sympatico; | -unreconstructed space opera/ aesthetically kind of blah; -high friction. (I'm walking around talking to folks. A lot. Just walking around. . . .)

Thanks for your help with this, guys.

I suppose I should also mention: We have a PS2 in addition to the Xbox360, so PS2-compatible recommendations are welcome as well. No PC games, please, unless their hardware requirements are extremely light, or unless they're so unstoppably awesome that you just can't contain yourself. My laptop doesn't really have the CPU or the graphics card to handle anything too intense.

What is this narrative technique?

ninebelow — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:55:24 -0800

What is the name for the narrative technique whereby you start in media res in the middle of the story and then jump back to the beginning to tell the story in a nromal linear fashion? Examples might include Swordfish (film) or Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies (novel). There are loads of other examples but I can't think of any off the top of my head (although there is a very sophisticated version of this in Serenity).

Tell me about Club Stories.

LucretiusJones — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:05:26 -0800

What is the first example, some of the earliest examples, or some of the best examples of the "Club Story" narrative cliche? It's a late-Victorian cliche--one I particularly associate with ghost stories, tall tales, and imperialist hunting exotic game / beating down the natives / going native stories.

There's a bunch of guys (it seems to be a particularly male genre) gathered around smoking and drinking. Most commonly, the setting is one of the Victorian-era private social clubs, but it might be someone's library, on a pleasure boat, or any other sociable situation (see _Heart_of_Darkness_). A topic gets raised, stories are told in summary--but then one person tells a story worth reporting. The first level narrator is someone who heard the story told by the original (often crazy, untrustworthy, or traumatized) narrator.

I'm addicted to these stories, and I'm trying to do some semi-scholarly poking around preliminary to a project. I know these were big by the 1890s, and the ones after 1918 tend to be retrospective or nostalgic for that earlier period, but I'm looking for a main vector of transmission.

I'd also like anthologies of these, any scholarly studies on 'em, or just a listing of examples you really like (they're still written now and again in the horror genre).

don't hurt your brain

dnial — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:48:12 -0800

Is it possible to write a story with no hint whatsoever of any other being but one? I am wondering if it is possible to tell a story about one character, and one character only. What I mean is, can a story - that others would accept as a "story" - exist in which there is no reference to any other living being but the main character? And I mean no dead persons, no thoughts about other beings, no clues to the results of actions of any other life-forms, no imagined people, animals, supernatural beings, no impersonal roles (or groups of people) that somebody would have to fulfill eventually, no imagined life-forms in matter like machines and so on.

The closest I could imagine was
* a story about someone thinking about his or her past or future, but if you are strict you could classify this as another character
* a story about natural phenomena that does not connect them to any possible higher powers
* a story about phenomena that happen in or on someones body
* a story in a technical context which ignores all inherent connections to other people

Does the concept "story" imply that more than one character has to be in it? And are there any philosophers, culture, social or media theorists, linguists, authors, whoever who have thought and written about this?

one novel = one day

jammy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:21:17 -0800

Please tell me of good novels you have read where the story all takes place in one day. Or less. The novel could all take place in an hour, or an afternoon.

Here's some I already know: Ulysses by Joyce, Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf, Saturday by Ian McEwan, Travels in the Scriptorium and Man in the Dark by Paul Auster.

How does your creativity work?

archagon — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:10:19 -0800

How does your creativity work? For the longest time, I assumed that the only "real" way to generate interesting narrative ideas (characters, settings, etc.) was to essentially pull them out of thin air, and that any other method was artificial and clunky. I simply had no idea how artists like Imperial Boy managed to create such rich and imaginative paintings.

Recently, I discovered that I'm also able to think creatively, but only if I'm actually looking at something. For instance, I can easily think of a bunch of settings, stories, and characters while examining a photo or object, but hardly any if I'm working from memory. Is this typical, or was my original assumption correct? How does your creativity work?

Stories that take place in Hell, Purgatory, comas, nightmares, memory etc etc

unSane — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:52:20 -0800

I'm looking for narratives (books, movies, games) in which the protagonist is dead, dying or unconscious, and discovers they are not in the 'real' world at all, but Hell, heaven, purgatory, a coma, a nightmare, memory, or similar. Examples which contain spoilers below the fold. Obvious examples would be The Third Policeman, Stay, The Coma, the game Viridian Room, and so on. Alice in Wonderland sort-of counts but I'm more interested in protagonists who investigate their situation, rather than vanilla '...and then I woke up'. Bonus points if the narrative involves escaping.

For the purposes of the question, stories like Eternal Sunshine, a Nightmare on Elm Street and so on don't count because the protagonist is not completely immersed in the meta-world. I'd let If on a Winter's Night a Traveler slide in though.

Looking for fictional intragenerational incest narratives.

nobody — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:30:36 -0800

I'm looking for fictional intragenerational incest narratives -- books, film, television, etc. -- in which the relationship is presented as a tragic love, doomed to failure. I'm not interested in the probably more common (and more realistic) pure trauma narratives. The relationship need not necessarily be physically consummated. A few, as examples of what might count here: Geek Love, The House of Yes, The Royal Tennenbaums. Please, no intergenerational stories. That's gross.

How best to leap through time?

deCadmus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:16:44 -0800

What books have you read that handle the mechanics of an expansive timeline well? I'm not in want of a plot, but rather samples to study for the mechanics, alone.

I've realized the collection of scenes I'm writing is becoming a novel. It's also blooming into a rather sprawling story, with scenes that span several centuries of time. I'm good with that, but I'm less than certain how best to handle the mechanics of the narrative; i.e. how do I best jump from, say, the nineteenth century to present day and back again, and hope to have my reader follow?

What books have you read that do something like this well?

(P.S. Just to be excruciatingly clear, this isn't a genre thing about time-travel.)

Thanks!

The mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts

0bvious — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:58:58 -0800

I am interested in the mimetic and narrative capacities of artefacts, how cultural remnants transmit information through time and how meaning is translated once an artefact is re-appropriated or examined from a new perspective. I have several avenues of study at the moment (a list in extended explanation), but would like some more ideas. Areas of critical theory, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and poetics are all relevant. I want to show that the narratives and metaphors which can be understood as the architecture of our brains are somehow mimetically present in the physical, cultural and linguistic artefacts which surround us.

Here are a few of the readings I have gathered so far:

- Anthropological and evolutionary studies into the nature and transmission of narrative by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama (in particular her essay 'Reverse-Engineering Narrative' from the book 'The Literary Animal').
- Mikhail Bakhtin's 'Discourse in the Novel' (where he talks about language as having 'genres' or 'tastes' which can transmit as much meaning as the words themselves).
- Michael Shanks and Lynn Hershman Leeson's conversation at Seed Magazine on 'Presence' in art and archaeology and how new technologies affect it.
- Susan A. Stewart's book 'On Longing'.
- Gaston Bachelard's book 'The Poetics of Space'

Thanks in advance!

What are some famous stories that don't have a proper ending?

lunchbox — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:00:13 -0800

What are some famous stories that don't have a proper ending, like the series finale of the Sopranos? Can anyone think of well-known stories (novels, poems, movies, plays, etc.) in which many loose ends are left untied, even though no sequel is planned? I Googled around, and this term seems to be called "narrative closure" (but I couldn't find many good articles on it as a technique). Is there any consensus among movie/literature critics on when this is technique generally works or doesn't work?

New York Creative Writing/Critical Theory PHD

0bvious — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:48:51 -0800

New York Creative Writing/Critical Theory PHD: I am currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing and Critical Theory in London, and plan to go on to PHD after I finish. I would ideally like to go to an East coast USA/New York university to do this (for several reasons). I'd like some help with finding a good list of possible institutions... I am interested in Narrative form, from a Creative/Critical theory perspective. I also want the ability to utilise other areas of any university I take a PHD in to broaden the scope of my thesis, thus:

- I am interested in the Evolutionary origins and purpose of narrative (a university established in Evolutionary Psychology perhaps).

- I am also interested in the neuro-psychology of narrative form, (i.e. Which came first: the narrative or the human mind? How does each relate to/influence the other?)

- My studies will necessarily follow a semiological/semiotics path...

A New York based university with departments and/or specialists in these fields and a firm PHD basis in Creative and Critical Theory is what I am looking for.

Does such an institution exist?

Yes, I actually want to watch a Canadian movie twice.

SassHat — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:05:55 -0800

Help me remember this independent Canadian film! I watched this narrative film some time in 2005, I have no idea how old it was at that time but I imagine it was made some time after the late nineties. I imagine it received fairly decent distribution as I rented it in a Blockbuster in Florida (it was probably the only Canadian film there that wasn't by a "name" director). Plot description maybe-spoilers below.

The film is about a young woman who has graduated from college within the past couple of years. She takes a job temping, working as some sort of secretary. A sort of nerdy guy there (played by the director) asks her out on a date but it doesn't really work out. She has what seems to be the beginning of an alcohol problem although its more implied than shown. There are a lot of sort of everyday scenes, meeting friends on the street and realistic sounding idle conversations.

She applies for a job at a university through one of her friends and then somehow messes it up (?) and is generally bumbling around messing up her life. It's a strange sort of film about the years immediately after college. It has a still quality due to the lack of non-diagetic sound/music, and due to the frequency of awkward exchanges. The film was very low-budget, possibly a student film or a first film. There was a little featurette about the director on the DVD. I believe the film was shot in Toronto but it could have been elsewhere in Canada.

Any idea what it is? It's driving me crazy. I vaguely remember a theme of EMT/paramedics either in the title or on the box/DVD menu design.

What is the narrative represented in the most media?

underwater — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:14:36 -0800

What is the narrative represented in the most media? I want to be pretty strict about it being the "same" story, i.e. I'm not going to count Romeo and Juliet as the same narrative as West Side Story. It should have the same characters, etc. I'm not concerned about popularity, how widespread the story is, or how many versions there are in any particular medium--just how many media. So I'd rather see something that is a film, television show, and book than a thing that's a film and has 5 different book versions. I know that 'media' can be a fishy word but I am thinking things like film, television, literature, painting, photography, videogames, hypertext, radio, non-radio audio re-enactment, comics, etc. I'm also interested in fiction/non-fiction versions of the same story.

Bonus for a story with media available to view, buy, or borrow.

he said/she said

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:04:21 -0800

Looking for good books with alternating narration. In the same style as Rules of Attraction or The People of Paper or Theft.

Kind of like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or Robber Bride

I would prefer to find books more like the first three examples than the latter two.

Recommendations?

MediatedExperienceFilter

Alterscape — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:17:46 -0800

I'm looking for scholarly research and writing on the topic of experience mediated through recording devices, with an emphasis on cell-phone still/video cameras, point-and-shoots, etc -- casual, frequent media gathering activities performed by nonprofessionals in support of blogging and other personal storytelling. As part of grad-school prep, I've been reading a lot of papers regarding everyday storytelling using multimedia (think blogging, flickr, youtube skits, etc). One aspect these specific papers haven't touched is how the use of recording equipment for media-gathering affects the individual's experience of events, as opposed to experiencing the same events as a spectator without intent to record. Is anybody doing research on these issues from a technical or anthropological perspective? If not, why not?

For the record, as a film studies undergrad, I'm aware of the extensive body of work surrounding ontology and documentary filmmaking theory (cinema verite, direct cinema, etc), but I'm interested specifically in non-professionals recording photo/video/audio media for personal (or at least non-'old media') use.

What's the word for the kind of character Piglet is?

nanojath — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:00:01 -0800

English majors? I'd like to read about how elements of narrative are categorized and labeled Like most people in junior high I learned about elements of plot like rising action, climax, falling action and types of characters like the protagonist and the antagonist.

I'd like to learn about what sort of academic exploration there is of this type of thing on a finer scale - is there a name for that Dickensian first paragraph where the young man describes his situation in life - how his parents died and how many pounds a year he has - before getting into the plot? There have to be more than two types of identified characters - what are they and what are they called? I'm looking for resources, accessible books, online links would be great but I don't know if the subject is too esoteric.

What is your personal narrative?

loiseau — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:13:33 -0800

Do you have any recommendations for solid creative non-fiction magazine columns or the like? I'm a writer and I really enjoy both reading and writing personal narratives like the NYT's "Modern Love" column or the Nerve "Personal Essays" section... the kind of thing which is sometimes called "creative non-fiction".

With a view to both finding new regular reads and finding new markets for my own writing, I'm looking for recommendations for this style of magazine writing, or anything you think is related and worth exploring. I'd prefer stuff I can read online for free, but I'm not particularly excited for Joe or Jane Blogger, unless they're professional and write in a more thoughtful memoir style, rather than this-is-what-my-kid-did-today.

Thank ye!

Know any good Greenpeace stories?

np312 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:54:15 -0800

Can anyone point me in the direction of stories involving specific battles of Greenpeace, (and Greenpeace members?) I'm also interested in stories involving Greenpeace splinter groups. I'm looking specifically for narrative articles (or documentaries or books) about people involved in Greenpeace, or specific crusades undertaken by Greenpeace groups that have a strong storyline (ie a beginning, middle, and possible end.)

For example I just read a fantastic article called "Whale Warriors" about the Sea Shepherd organization that attacks illegal whaling ships. (Greenpeace does NOT support them because it borders on eco-terrorism, but the group was originally an offshoot of Greenpeace.) I'm looking for more stories like this, that are controversial and gripping, with strong characters.

I'm not as interested in articles/books about the basic environmental issues or the history of Greenpeace. I'm looking for specific crusades and crusaders of Greenpeace that are really fascinating and unusual.

Your help is much appreciated!

Let me tell you a story

scallion — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 13:55:15 -0800

Examples of movies, books, where the narrator lies to the audience as they tell their story? "The Usual Suspects" prompted me to wonder if this is one of the things that made this such an original and outstanding piece of writing. Almost the entire story is a work of calculated fiction by the storyteller, himself a character within it. Upon conclusion, it falls upon the audience to decipher and assemble what is true and what isn't.

Any other works you can think of where intentional deception by the narrator of the story is aimed at not only other characters, but at the audience?

Having trouble with my English lit.

MoralAnimal — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:03:42 -0800

Could someone please explain to me what narrative level 'The Great Gatsby' is in [more inside] I have to write an essay on it and I can't understand what each level is. I've attempted to work it out and I think its intradiegetic, but I'm not sure. Our university library is also not very helpful as the books that I need have been out since September.

It's been a long time since I've logged on here last, so I hope that doesn't bode too unfavourably for me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated:)

The web as a platform for longform drama?

chocolatepeanutbuttercup — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 13:26:53 -0800

Web Drama Filter: I liked Broken Saints. What else would I like? ( I'm not looking for web comics so much as long-form dramatic pieces, with sound, 2D and 3D animation and possibly video.) Is there anything else out there using the web as a platform for viewing and distribution?