Anecdote, Vegetable, or Mineral: An Informal Analysis of Informal Stories

FIELDWORK DATA — ENTRY NO. 3

ANATOMY OF A PEP TALK

The following describes the structure of a pep talk given recently by the director of a nonprofit center.

The occasion: an impending deadline

The audience: most of the 50 or so employees working on a project of particular importance to the future of the center; average age, 21

Time of the talk: 9 p.m. — significant, as convening for this talk requires something of a sacrifice on the part of all in attendance, which will be a theme of the talk

I. The speaker discusses her individual history with the project; she is its founder.
Effect: This ethical appeal garners respectful attention.

II. The speaker shares a) some common misconceptions of the team she assembled for the project at its outset (including employees in attendance at the pep talk) and b) her refusal to subscribe to those unflattering misconceptions.
Effect: The speaker’s credibility is reinforced in light of her faith in her team.

III. The speaker discusses the broad cultural implications of the team’s work, framing such work as a social responsibility.
Effect: The team members are essentially asked to set aside complaints or misgivings in light of the long-term value of their work — should it be completed on time.

IV. The speaker reminds the team of their deadline and describes what is at stake in failing: essentially, the future of the center.
Effect: This is a bit of a scare tactic, although it apparently does not distort the truth of the predicament.

V. The speaker shifts to a rundown of the project’s accomplishments to date.
Effect: The emphasis shifts to the team’s capability.

VI. The speaker describes for the team what they stand to gain in meeting their deadline: professional survival and the satisfaction of having made a worthwhile contribution to society.
Effect: The mood continues on an upward swing.

VII. The speaker presents statistics on similar projects’ impact.
Effect: The team revisits the value of their work, finding solidarity with others who have worked to see similar work come to fruition, possibly under analogous pressures and constraints.

VIII. The speaker closes by reiterating the deadline but in varied terms — the number of remaining days against the number of tasks to be completed.
Effect: Having been reminded of the value of their work and inspired to reach their utmost potential, the team now regards the deadline as a challenge rather than a symbol of their professional demise.

The team returns to their workstations inspired anew to succeed.

In World Football...

Congratulations, Algeria.

Anecdote, Vegetable, or Mineral: An Informal Analysis of Informal Stories

FIELDWORK DATA — Entry No. 2

Collected: November 15, 2009, 9:50 a.m.

Setting: Golf course

Narrator: Male, 45, Caucasian

Audience: One Caucasian male, 45

Topic Summary: The name of one’s cat

Transition: NA

Opening Strategy: The storyteller proclaims the topic of the story with an arresting statement to the effect of “Here’s what I had to do regarding my cat.”

Exposition: The story begins in the recent historical past, which frames the narrative, with the storyteller relaying the events of a recent visit to a veterinarian with his cat. During the visit, the veterinarian inquires as to the cat’s name, the answer to which becomes the central conflict in this story.

Rising Action: The story shifts to the more distant historical past, and to another state, when the storyteller’s cat was routinely brought to the veterinarian by another caregiver, the storyteller’s romantic partner, who did not share the storyteller’s name. Hence, the cat’s last name is different from its current owner’s (i.e., the storyteller’s).

Climax: The storyteller expresses annoyance that his cat officially has a last name other than his own.

Falling Action: The storyteller announces, with clear dismay, the cat’s official first and last names.

Denouement: The storyteller ends the story with a statement to the effect of “So, this is what I have to deal with.”

Review:
I. Arresting statement
II. Opening frame: recent historical past
III. Central conflict introduced
IV. Rising action in more distant historical past
V. Climax: expression of annoyance
VI. Commentary on the outcome of the climax: dismay
VII. Closing frame: present state of affairs

Paralingual Cues: The storyteller makes frequent use of hands to indicate a general state of exasperation, often directing them, as if accusatorily, at the sky and off in various directions.

Interruptions: NA

Comments: The story seems designed as a report on the teller’s state of mind regarding his pet, perhaps as a metaphorical statement on his condition, and on the human condition more generally, which finds us responsible for pets that, notwithstanding their companionability, remind us of those of our own species who fail us in this regard.

Interactive Storytelling: The Next Frontier?

I recently had the opportunity to meet and converse with pioneering electronic game programmer and designer Chris Crawford. Crawford, who began his career with Atari in the late 1970s, was on the campus of Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, where I teach interactive storytelling, among other (less amusing) subjects. In an open exchange with faculty, and later in a presentation to the larger campus community, he shared a thumbnail history of the game industry—the “games” (plural) industry, in his words—and his current thinking on where electronic games might be heading.

That’s not entirely accurate. Crawford, at this stage in his career, is avowedly more interested in interactive storytelling than in electronic games per se. And there is a difference, in his view. “Games are about things,” he said. “Entertainment is about people.” He expresses his preference for the latter in his efforts to create, through his organization Storytron.com, computer-based experiences that offer users/players entertaining character interactions in scenarios that develop in response to user/player choices.

That’s the interactive story in a nutshell: The plot, for lack of a better word, evolves in a direction influenced by user/player choice. Many electronic games function according to the same principle, of course, but their plots are encoded along a game “spine,” with the consequences of choices following a narrow range of encoded paths that often lead back to the trunk of the narrative, thereby creating a perceived sense of user/player influence over the narrative’s direction. In true interactive stories, in contrast, the consequences of user/player choice are more varied and more sensitive, propelling the narrative through a more open, less path-bound virtual space or scenario. Interactive stories of this type aim for an experience that more closely simulates interaction with an artificially intelligent character or entity; such interactions are rich, varied, and complex.

Crawford pointed to Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern’s groundbreaking but inchoate project Façade (image at the top of this entry) as the most fully realized example of an electronic interactive story available today. Façade remains in an experimental stage and can be downloaded free of charge. It’s buggy but, in my opinion, fascinating. Indeed, its shortcomings suggest the monumental challenge of creating a mechanism that simulates the wide range and complexity of human interactions possible in even a simple one-on-one exchange.

Crawford’s presentation came on the heels of a stimulating class discussion in which my students and I revisited some of our basic assumptions about such fundamental concepts as game, story, and play. We find the definitions of these words, in the context of computer-based experiences, to be very much in flux. We envision a range of experiences that blend these values in innovative ways. Following Crawford’s presentation, I reminded my students that Crawford sees some applications for interactive computer-based experiences in corporate training as well as in entertainment, although he cautioned that, when one tries to combine entertaining and training, the result is often neither.

I take this warning into my work as the faculty liaison with a game development team creating an electronic game that combines soccer simulation gameplay with an instructional message about preventing violence against women. Save us, Sabido!

Anecdote, Vegetable, or Mineral: An Informal Analysis of Informal Stories

FIELDWORK DATA — Entry No. 1

Collected: November 5, 2009, 8:21 p.m.

Setting: Bar (sub-variety: sports)

Storyteller: Male, 35, Caucasian

Audience: Five Caucasian males, approx. 25-50 years

Topic Summary: Fist Fighting

Transition: It is possible that the story under examination was inspired by an encounter at a restaurant previous to the narrative episode described herein. During this previous encounter, the storyteller experienced a brief, friendly exchange with an individual with whom, on another previous occasion and in the setting where the story under examination was told, the storyteller collided accidentally.

Opening Strategy: The storyteller poses a rhetorical question: “Have any of you ever been in a fight as a grownup?”

Exposition: After previewing the story climax, which will involve an assault by way of a thrown, unopened can of beer (brand unknown), the storyteller (also the protagonist) provides a general description of the setting—the portion of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, campus known as the Meadows—and the time, the evening of a football match between Scottish Premier League rivals Celtic F.C. and the Rangers. The storyteller notes that, on this occasion, he had been wearing a blue shirt, suggesting affiliation with the Rangers (inaccurate). The storyteller then introduces the antagonist: a short, drunk Scotsman carrying a bag containing two cans of beer.

Rising Action: The antagonist, upon meeting the storyteller, challenges him to a fight. The storyteller describes an ensuing brief but heated exchange during which he understands that the antagonist is inebriated to the point of being unthreatening.

Climax: The storyteller meets the assailant’s challenge by turning the assailant’s body 180 degrees so that the assailant is facing in another direction. As the storyteller walks away, the assailant renews the challenge by throwing a beer can at the storyteller, missing, thereby failing.

Falling Action: The storyteller continues walking away.

Denouement: The storyteller leaves the scene while the assailant directs his continued tirade at a lamppost.

Review:
I. Rhetorical question
II. Setting established
III. Time established
IV. Enter antagonist
V. Antagonist challenges protagonist (storyteller)
VI. Protagonist meets challenge
VII. Antagonist renews challenge
VIII. Antagonist fails
IX. Exeunt protagonist (storyteller)

Paralingual Cues: The storyteller makes frequent use of hands to indicate the antagonist’s height. These gestures convey a sense of gentleness, as though the storyteller were not describing a bellicose, inebriated Celtic F.C. fan but, rather, an innocent, frightened child.

Interruptions: NA

Comments: Several members of the audience inquire as to what the storyteller did with the beer (he walked away from it), indicating that, had they been confronted and assailed thus, they might have seized the unopened can from the ground and run away with it. The story seems directed at generating similar stories in series, and this, in fact, ensues.

Rough Start #1

WORKING TITLE: "Playing Through"
A Short Story

The starter lets Bellar and me off the first tee as a twosome. This is unexpected and also a relief, since neither of us particularly enjoys being paired up with strangers to make a threesome or foursome, which is common practice here at Rocky Ridge as at other golf courses. Naturally, I will play a round with strangers if so paired up, but I prefer not to. Golf is difficult enough, at least for me, without having to manage a lot of chitchat. While this opinion may not match Bellar’s exactly, he and I have discussed this often enough that I’m fairly confident he agrees with me.

....

Thanks again, Williamstown

I’m remiss in not posting this sooner. On October 19 and 20, I was invited to participate in the Words Are Wonderful event at Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I was invited by middle school teacher Liza Barrett and Liz Costley, community member affiliated with the Friends of the Williamstown Library and liaison with the Williams College Center for Community Engagement. This was my third visit to Mount Greylock to lead writing workshops for seventh-, eighth, and ninth-graders. As always, I had a lot of fun working with the students, and I’m grateful to the young writers and their teachers for a memorable couple of days.

I am also grateful to my old friends Richard Scullin and Karin Stack and my new friend Hazel (who can’t be my old friend yet because she’s only six years old) for putting me up at their home.

Highlights:
* hanging out
* playing music
* Indian food
* impromptu visit to MASSMoCA to see artist Michael Oatman overseeing the installation of a most Quixotic new work (more on this later)

Burlington Book Festival 2009

What a great Burlington Book Festival Rick Kisonak hosted this weekend at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, hard by the banks of Lake Champlain. The economy is down, but the climate is improving for the solitary act of reading and the not-so-solitary act of celebrating the written word.

At the festival, I had the privilege of introducing (in this order) authors Ron Krupp, Amanda Boyden, Robin Lippincott, Joseph Boyden, Rita Murphy, the Reverend Gary Kowalski, and Mary Azarian (to whom this year's festival was dedicated).

They're all great talents, but it was the least literary among them — that is, the author better known for what he writes about than for how he writes about it — Ron Krupp, who really captured my imagination.

Krupp, the author of The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening, is promoting his new self-published book, Lifting the Yolk: Local Solutions to America's Farm and Food Crisis, and he shared with his audience some startling insights on how the typical North American diet, and our general ignorance about where our food comes from, is affecting our health. He noted that, when Robert Kennedy visited the Deep South in the 1960s, he observed malnutrition and lots of skinny people. Today, Krupp said, he'd find malnourished obese people. Some 25% of U.S. four-year-olds are obese, he added, citing a government report. Whoa. He said he hired a Canadian printer to print his latest book because it was less expensive up there. Why is it so much less expensive to print a book in Canada than on this side of the border? "Health care," Krupp said.

I immediately thought of all the U.S. businesses—large and small—that can't compete with foreign ventures because the cost of doing business in this country, part of which is the health-care cost, is so high. Sure, taxes are part of that nut. But if less-expensive health-care options were available in this country—for employers as well as for employees—wouldn't that stimulate the economy? It's all of a piece. Krupp was talking about growing food, but the same free-market forces that make cheap-but-not-that-nutritious food the rule, not the exception, are also creating expensive health-care options for a nation of people whose diet drives us to need care. Brilliant.

I took my typical Vermonter pride in Krupp's observation that, despite representing 1/500th of the U.S. population, Vermont leads the country in community supported agriculture (CSA), farmers markets, and craft beer. (I could go on about all the "livability" awards Vermont and Burlington have won over the past couple of years, but I won't.)

I left Krupp's talk with my head spinning—but in a good way.