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{"id":3452,"date":"2004-02-05T02:15:00","date_gmt":"2004-02-05T02:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2004\/02\/3452\/"},"modified":"2004-02-05T02:15:00","modified_gmt":"2004-02-05T02:15:00","slug":"3452","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2004\/02\/3452.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

SOMETHING HAPPENED<\/strong>: Minisinoo, Queen of X-Fic, asks: \u201cWhat is \u2018story\u2019?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Her answer: \u201c\u2026I view a story as a journey on which the author invites the reader. Any kind of journey, whether in space and time, or in philosophy and spirit, or in character growth. I also think \u2018conflict\u2019 of some sort is a necessary part. Some challenge has to be posed, and resolved \u2014 if only partially.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I don\u2019t think it\u2019s always necessary for a story to answer all questions, as sometimes what we share as human beings are the questions, not the answers. But I do think there\u2019s a difference between a story that never intended to answer questions \u2014 raised them on purpose \u2014 and an author who simply wrote him\/herself into a corner and now finds too many dangling plot-threads to resolve, or who\u2019s simply lazy and uncareful. Action!Distraction and lots of blown-up buildings is not a substitute for poor plotting.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 yeah, story. I think \u2018journey\u2019 and \u2018challenge\u2019 define it for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s \u2018story\u2019 for the rest of you?\u201d<\/p>\n

While I was in New Haven, I brought this up with The Rat<\/a>, and she hiked out a lit-theory tome by some Russian (Shklovsky??? help me out here, people\u2026), who basically argues that in a story\u2013as opposed to a storyless chunk of fictional prose\u2013we move from false assessment of the situation to true recognition. There\u2019s still movement, but it may be movement in the reader\u2019s <\/em>mind rather than in the characters\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

I initially wanted to dispute these movement-oriented definitions of \u201cstory.\u201d I wanted to say that stories could also be chunks of fiction that change the way the reader looks at the world, without there being any movement within the story (whether false\u2013> true or journeylike). I wanted to cite the experience Agatha Christie mentions at least once (maybe in Endless Night<\/em>?) of seeing a piece of modern art and being so struck by it that afterward, the entire world looks like the art. (I presume other people have this\u2013the thing where you find yourself thinking in the cadences of whatever you\u2019ve been reading, and borrowing the lens of your current obsession-author.)<\/p>\n

But I realized I was probably trying too hard to assimilate \u201cstory\u201d into all other kinds of art. Magritte <\/a>gives you a lens through which to view the world. There\u2019s little movement in his works\u2013even in the ones, like \u201cGrelots roses, ciels en lambeaux,\u201d that at first seem sequential. This moveless art, in which the artist basically jams his glasses onto your face and holds you in place until your eyes adapt, is often incredibly powerful; but that doesn\u2019t make it \u201cstory.\u201d And it\u2019s worthwhile to have a category for \u201cstory\u201d that\u2019s separate from \u201cimaginative prose,\u201d so that we can discuss how different fiction writers operate. Chekhov, for one, seems to have a hard time kneading his impressions into a story. Many of his stories (\u201cA Hard Case,\u201d \u201cConcerning Love\u201d) simply stand there, like Easter Island heads, no climax or denouement and no movement from false to true. That\u2019s one way to operate (although I think it works better for Kafkaesque parables than for Chekhovesque portraits) but yeah, it isn\u2019t story. Make with the movement!<\/p>\n

Also, the comments to Minisinoo\u2019s post <\/a>include a great quote from the movie \u201cAdaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"