RE: Deals

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery@3DProgrammer.com>]

> At the heart of nearly every story you will find, not of
> necessity the sort
> of mechanical horse-trading of the cognitive level stuff, but definitely
> this deep-level dealmaking and its basic building blocks:  fear
> of betrayal,
> trust, and desire.  I'm tempted to go so far as to say all
> stories have this
> element, but I want to test my hypothesis with several different kinds of
> stories before making that strong a statement.

Man walks across frozen Alaska.  Man spits and it's so cold that the spittle
instantly freezes into an icicle off of his chin.  Man tries to build a
fire.  Forget all the introspection as he's dying... besides, I can't
remember it anyways.  Where is the deal?  There is no deal.  Deals are but
one kind of manipulation in the universe, they require other communicating
entities.  "Dealing" with Nature is simply manipulating it, or being
helplessly subject to its abuses because it is more powerful than yourself.
No deal with a tidal wave or an asteroid colliding with Earth.  No deal even
with lighting a fire.  You gather the materials and give it your best shot,
you succeed or fail.


Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

Authoring is the sale of specific values to the audience,
*not* a general traversal of abstract categories.