The Human

[Khayaam Ravenhurst]

What if not this Grand Narrative?

[Sintrasesity]

There seems to be a quality in modernity that creates contrast in temporal flow states. For instance, traditional storytelling by means of linear progression creates a series of measurable instances. Considering that the quality of the exposition correlates with level of interest. A hooked audience will become more or less susceptible to spikes in the narrative's amplitude, based on their level of interest. With all the rising and falling inherent to traditional narratives, what value changes does a non-linear narrative introduce?

Sin - violation of perceived ideals
Trases - marked discovery, investigation
Ity - assessed quality, indicative of value

[Khayaam Ravenhurst]

@Sintrasesity

The value of the nonlinear narrative is that it recovers for the reader a more egalitarian experience. The linear narrative is bound and fixed by an omnipotent author or set of fixed authors. Essentially it is a hierarchical relationship where the author is privileged over the reader. The reader has to follow the linear narrative set forth by the author. It is a fixed, unevolving experience. Whereas the nonlinear narrative lends itself to multiple variations of readings depending upon how the reader moves through the narrative. The reader to some degree is given agency over the narrative experience. Barthes The Death of the Author concept in a sense. Reader participation theory. Author and reader share responsibility in the creation of meaning. It is a collaboration vs a task assigned relationship. Now, is this to say one is more valuable than the other? Not necessarily. However, I feel that the nonlinear, unfixed narrative is a more natural representation of the human storytelling process. We can only create meaning by sharing a context. When one creates a context and the other has to exist within it, the communication is not as fluid or efficient. Symbiotic vs predatory. The reader is always writing what the author never can, and shouldnt try to.

[Redbeck]

Dear Khayaam Ravenhurst welcome to our humble repository of thought and knowledge, normally I would prefix this with "Roll up, roll up to Oracle Forum..." ( nay the latter is part of the tall story tradition!), but indeed bright minds are rallying to the lighthouse in droves. You too Sintrasesity, your light has been hidden under the bushel of this post, so welcome and we hope to hear further from you in your own right.

Passing myth, legend, belief and knowledge down through generations on a directly spoken word communication basis is to my mind essential to the spritual growth of human kind, whether it be through teacher, historian, priest or shaman. The rapt look on a circle of children's faces in the lamplight when they are collectively being told an on the spot creation or an established story, is beautiful to behold, the teller is the equivalent of a tribal elder. Their sense of memory is also heightened, for they know that they may never hear exactly the same tale again. Knowledge passed via group articulated essentially performed fables, parables and stories is a definable source of human pleasure.

For instance in Britain a performance of mummers and mystery plays is always massively well attended. This year William Shakespeare's and Miguel de Cervantes' shared 400 birthdays will spawn a plethora of performance and audience attended tale telling, shedding further light on the respected Tudor dominated realm of Albion and rural Spain in the 16th century to an extended family of global humanity.

Indeed the wide spread of Mummers play productions, a title acquired because they were performed by actors know in old English as mummers or guisers, spawned a rash of colloquial nouns which have enriched the English language. Adding a series of coined names for performers into localised vocabulary such as: rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, wrenboys, galoshins and guysers. Undoubtedly that linguistic creativity is equally replicated by the multiple words describing the story tellers role entering common parlance across a broad palette of languages spoken around the world.

Yet the importance of the passing down of pagan spiritual as well as defined religious beliefs is simply immense: The Aborigine, Aztec, Druid, Maori, Maya, Native American, Polynesian and the developed religions across Asia and Europe that eventually spread much further afield, were effectively passed outwards and down through time via dramatised word of mouth. Reading and writing was not a widespread skill as well as an ennobled profession.

The epitomy pictures below are worth perhaps another thousand words apiece from this subjective pen.

However, this is a hugely important topic to the core website and further contributions would be much appreciated.