Re: Misc

[Kenneth Lu <kenlu@MIT.EDU>]

At 8:49 -0800 1/31/01, Chris Crawford wrote:
>Kenneth, I believe that your confusion here arises from the 
>ambiguity inherent in your use of the intransitive form of the verb 
>"to change". In this form, "The story changes" could translate to 
>the transitive "The story changes itself" or the transitive "The 
>storyteller changes the story." I am arguing for this latter 
>transitive form, and most definitely against the former transitive 
>form. When you use the intransitive form, you can't see any 
>difference: "the story changes".
>
>Interaction takes place between storyteller and audience, not 
>between story and audience. It's that simple -- yet, as you can see, 
>it is the source of endless confusion.

I agree.  I've never disagreed with that.

audience <-> storyteller <-> story

The audience interacts with the storyteller, and the storyteller in 
turn interacts with the story.

Thus, the audience INDIRECTLY interacts with the story, CHANGES the story.

Either way, the end result is a changed story.

No?

I'm still a bit confused as to why this point is so important, other 
than that we should focus on the audience-storyteller relationship 
because the other is pretty trivial?

-ToastyKen

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| Kenneth Lu - kenlu@mit.edu - http://www.mit.edu/~kenlu/ |
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| "Life is far too important to be taken seriously."      |
|                                                         |
|                                          -- Oscar Wilde |
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