Subject: RE: Will on Malcolm on plot
Matthew_Stevenson@BAYLOR.EDU
Date: Tue Apr 08 1997 - 19:34:20 GMT
On Tue, 08 Apr 1997 16:53:45 -0500 bananafish@cassatt.Mass-USR.COM wrote:
>At 12:25 AM 4/8/97 -0600, you wrote:
>>
>>>I'm not saying plot isn't essential. Plot and character are incredibly
>>>complementary in a yin-yang type of way.
>>
>>just for the record, i'd like to publicly acknowledge that this is way better
>>than my lame two-sides of a coin remark.--matt
>
>Personally I'm worried that I implied plot and character are inversely
>proportion and bounded, i.e.
>
> PLOT X CHARACTER = STORY
>
>I certainly don't believe that. I'm intrigued by teh math model, but AUTHOR
>as the 3rd axis definitely threw me off. I guess I spend to much time in
>math and science classes but TIME almost always jumps out as your third
>axis. That or the imaginary plane. i-plane , IMAGINATION, coincidence? I
>think not. But lets stick with time for now. Many options then present
>themselves. Internal time of the story? That seems logical and of course
>varies the work from theatrical, almost one-act to epic out at infinity.
>What about TIME as an axis taken externally? as in our interpretations and
>the ramifications over the years. That axis I like the best because it kind
>of calms the PLOT/CHARACTER debate by giving each one a life of its own
>outside the kind of suspended time that exists within the pages. Please
>bear with my dimestore metaphysics. Anyway I think Malcolm almost certainly
>implied this type of external time, our time, that lets us remember the
>"blooms", etc. - our favorite characters - but also our favorite plots or
>archetypal conflicts.
i like the idea of external time as the third axis, but i have a few questions.
i think what you really mean by external time is the audience and how it changes
over time. because i don't think it's time itself which would be a defining
characteristic of a story (and/or author if we accept my other proposal that the
author persona is contained in this field), but rather i think it's the change
in audience and reaction over time. if this is the third axis, i ask "does the
axis have to be a straight line?" i don't think so, necessarily. this axis
would be a function of actual time passed, economic, social, and technological
changes during this time, and reactions to the story/author. i've noticed i
have a tendency to tightly associate the author with the story. i'll throw this
out: author=body of work. i'm done now.--matt
The thing about time is it only goes in one direction.
>With the kind of punny "IMAGINATION" as the third axis, the plane could go
>in any direction as it should, thus the _scope_ of the work would be the
>VOLUME of the resulting sphere. That volume would still float alone in space
>with no relativity to other works, however, without external time. If anyone
>else can think of a link between this kind of stand-alone model I'd get a
>kick out of it. What's cool about this math thing is we could make up all
>kinds of completely irrevelevant parallels. We do a Fourier transform based
>upon the frequency of which certain works are read. Hell I don't know - I'm
>rambling. By the way, the i-plane would naturally derive from the square
>root of your negativity. Please jump in any other math dorks.
>
>Oh yeah, try having a name like Billy and a west Texas accent and see if
>anyone ever takes you seriously. Thanks Matt Whoever for kicking off the
>mathematical analogy, and thanks Malcolm for the Jean Redpath tip.
>>
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