Re: A response to Walt

["Jason Joel Thompson" <jason@wildghost.com>]

Okay, I'm going to be sort of grumpy here, and I apologize-- but I've got an
itch to scratch.

Sorry, Bob, that you have to be the particular reciepient of one of my
infrequent rants, but timing, as they say, is everything:


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob" <mantic@brightok.net>


> Literature studies really miss a fundamental point of fiction. Fiction
> is not, ever, a mere sequence of events. Lit students are also presented
> innumerable useless classifications and components, obscuring the
> meaningful definition of fiction.


I'm sorry, but I sort of get tired of hearing: "Listen, everybody's got it
wrong.  The establishment doesn't understand!  Story isn't "A", it's
"B"...!"


>         When the IF/IS/idrama communities can stop grasping at the tail
> and trunk and legs of the beast and have a look at it as a whole the
> medium may start to develop as a form of literature.

"... if only people would stop thinking in terms of "A" and start thinking
in terms of "B" we'd have this whole interactive story-telling issue licked,
by golly!"


>         Here again, the overanalysis of literature scholars obscures the
> obvious. Fiction, or plot, is nothing but conflict seeking resolution.

Look, I'm sorry, but its not like we're anticipating some sort of
25-words-or-less solution here.  Oh, sure, there's a solution all right, but
its gonna be intricate and vaguely emergent and it probably involves either
clever utilization of humans or
superior computing... that is to say: something smart has to be in charge.

No more talk, if you've got something special then let's see it.  Implement,
baby.


Well, I can go on... there's some silly things said in Bob's post here
(sorry Bob,) but I'm really not trying to single anyone out, I'm just
venting.

And no, I'm not adding anything intelligent to the discussion, it's late, so
cut me some slack.  Besides, my -really- good ideas are proprietary, what,
you think I want to spill the beans with sharp cookies like Freitag snooping
around?


jason joel thompson