newstalk

If you’ve spent much time elsewhere on this site (and if you haven’t, don’t go rushing—there’s not much there), then you might have noticed a rather enigmatic tagline on the main index:

Everyone You Know Desires Narrative Enabling Technology.

If you’ve noticed it, drink a shot of orange juice and keep playing along. You’re not the only one who’s wondered what it means—I often have as well. I originally glommed onto it because I felt that “eykd.net” wasn’t enigmatic enough, and needed to be some sort of mysterious acronym.

Recently, however, the idea has begun the crystallization process in my mind. Narrative Enabling Technology. What is that? Allow me to explain a bit more.

A brief list of narrative-enabling technologies over the years: * Campfires. * Cuneiform on clay tablets. * Seagoing vessels and harbor taverns. * Papyrus. * Ampitheatres. * Quill pens. * Monasteries and monk copyists. * Printing-presses. * Typewriters. * Televisions (much as I hate to admit it). * Cities. * Desktop publishing software. * Hypertext. * . . . ?

There’s a lot going on in the above list. If you take the time and follow the links, you’ll discover a lot of stories about technologies, and you’ll begin to wonder even more what I mean by narrative-enabling technology, or you might wonder if I haven’t cast a rather broad net. Don’t worry—I’ll get specific in a little bit, once we get the broad generalities out of the way.

Let’s define:

Narrative

By Narrative, I’ll mean the second sense, that of narrative the art, narrative the technique, narrative the process. What we do to overcome the tyranny of the blank page or dead air.

Technology

By Technology, I’ll mean the third sense, the anthropological sense, and take an assist from the greek root: technologies are systematic applications of knowledge to the implementation of a tool or the practice of a skill or art. In other words, it’s a whole lot more than just sleek-looking chrome and blinking lights. At the risk of trivializing the topic by example: Kleenex (which I’ve been using quite a lot of the last few days) is the technological result of applying our knowledge of wood pulp processing, mass-producing industry, worldwide transportation, warehousing and logistics, and mass-media marketing to the every day practice of blowing one’s nose.

Enabling

By Enabling, I’ll mean the first-and-a-half sense, roughly translated “making more possible”.

Ergo…

Narrative Enabling Technology

Applying a diverse body of sociocultural technological knowledge to the task of making the process of storytelling more possible; the resulting artifacts thereof.

You see, I’m always calling myself a writer, but I admit it: sometimes the thought of filling page after page of blank pieces of paper with word after black-on-white typeset word brings me to tears. My suspicion is that I’m not alone. Over the past century, writers have been relentlessly pushing the bounds of the traditional dead-tree book and all its cultural baggage, often purposefully breaking it, just to see if they can pull some new tricks out of it to help make the process of storytelling a little more entertaining for all concerned.

I’m down with that, to a certain degree (I admit, I enjoyed reading If Upon a Winter’s Night a Traveler), but my complaint is that such textual trickstering quickly becomes an end in itself, leading to the equally-boring task of filling blank pieces of paper with cleverism after black-on-white typeset cleverism.

I’m much more interested in a different sort of storytelling that’s beginning to make waves on the pop culture charts these days (and I was interested in it before I knew what “trendy” meant—I grew up with this stuff). Namely, that work of creative fiction that J.R.R. Tolkien lovingly referred to as “sub-creation“. When people hear this, of course, they immediately think of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Those four books are indeed a great work of literature. However, if you finish them and begin to page through the appendices at the end of The Return of the King, or perhaps then go and pick up a copy of The Silmarillion, or then track down any of the numberless volumes of Tolkien’s notes and papers that his son has subsequently compiled, edited and published, you will begin to realize that the “sub-creation” that existed inside of Tolkien’s head must have been enormously more interesting than his mere words on paper.

Of course, Hemingway made famous the idea that a story should only be the visible tip of an iceberg that extends its bulk and mass deep into the murky depths of the ocean. I think that’s an excellent idea. But why shouldn’t the story also have a door somewhere that leads down into those sub-maritimean ice-halls and cathedrals? Or why shouldn’t the reader at least get a remote-control submarine to descend into the gloom and mount an exploration? Doors and submarines: these are narrative-enabling technologies. Campfires provided the mood and the setting for storytelling to take place. Clay tablets and papyrus and quill pens and scribes and copyist monks and the inevitable printing press gave storytelling physicality, permanence, and a commodification that encouraged the spread of individual narratives. Now, Microsoft Word and the hyperlink (and more the latter) are providing us with the ability to layer and manipulate narratives in new and exciting ways. But as a reader I want a way to go deeper, to spelunk deep into a world and go adventuring. As a writer, I want a set of tools to carve out those ice halls and dark, hidden passageways so that others may go adventuring.

There will still be plenty of black-on-white typeset words to go along, but there will also be white on black, and spoken words, and shouted words, and conversations, and all the mix and milieu of the ancient Greek drama scene or a rabbinical midrash session. And I don’t mean mere snazzy annotation; hypertext is a great start, but this sort of thing is going to take a community. You won’t just pick up a book and read it, you’ll catch a ball and run with it. If something is missing, you fill in the blanks. If something is wrong or out of place, you fix it. If something is lacking, you leave it better. The mythos is your playground.

Example: the Matrix. Say what you will, say what you want; I don’t think it’s perfect either. But if you look past the movies and start exploring a little, you’ll discover comics, anime, computer games, dead-tree books, heck, even a screen-saver. There’s more. People call it genre-mixing. I call it pulling out the stop-gaps. People call it storytelling by committee. I call it nascent community storytelling. People call it crass marketing. I call it a damned good idea for making money, if that’s what you’re interested in. There have always been the crappy novelizations and the action figures and the t-shirts and the McDonalds Happy Meal tie-ins, but those are shallow. The more you look, the more you keep seeing the same thing. This is different—there is depth, and a multitude of rabbit-holes to go exploring in.

However, this is also the corporate storytelling machine finally noticing the world of fan-fiction and, instead of trying to sweep it all under a rug or squash it with a gavel, they’re stopping and saying, “wait, I’ll bet there’s some money in this” and then majestically not completely screwing the whole thing up. They’ve done a good job (largely, I’m sure, thanks to the influence of those lovable Wachowski brothers). I don’t admit to much interest in courting Warner Bros. next time I want to see my story-world idea presented to the public. I’m more of a do-it-yourself kind of guy. And where Warner Bros. has storyboarders and costumers and extras and producers and grips and best boys and lots of money, I’ve merely got me, my friends, and my bank account (I usually find it a best practice not to assume anything about my friends’ bank accounts). So, if I want any narrative-enabling technology over here, I’ve either got to find it for free or cheap or make it myself.

So what does that have to do with what I’m doing these days? I’ve been world-building for some time now, constructing the world around a certain story idea I have. As I get deeper into it, I’ve begun to long for certain tools that would make the job easier. Tools to organize and arrange my notes and thoughts about the world. Tools to partially simulate parts of the world, and automatically generate the more mundane facts and figures of the world according to rules that I specify. I have some great ideas, but I guess I’d rather not spend my entire life working on them and only reach the point that Tolkien reached—I know there were more stories he wanted to tell; richer backgrounds he wanted to weave. So I’m looking at my tools, seeing what I have that works, and what needs to be improved upon. I’m learning how to program, so that I can start fashioning my own narrative-enabling technologies; my own set of tools.

Also, I’m keeping my eyes open, watching to see how other people solve the problems I’m trying to solve. I think the writing as the solitary struggle is overrated. I want ways to bring others into the creation process. That’s why, with this site, I’m doing like others and experimenting with the Creative Commons licensing scheme for creative work (see link at the bottom of this page). Because when I went to kindergarten, they taught us to share with each other and share alike, and it always seemed like a good idea. And that’s why there’s a comment link at the bottom of this essay (also known as a “dialogue-enabling technology”). So, while I take a break from my monologue, do you have any thoughts on the matter? Thought you might. Let’s tease this iceberg out a little.

Possibly related:

• Todays’ word is: Word.
• Randomness.
• Between Hope and Fear: The Delphi Age
• The colophon.

On February 7th, 2004, this was the truth (Tags: bank account, bank accounts, Clay, crystallization, dialogue-enabling technology, inevitable printing press, mass-media marketing, Microsoft, narrative-enabling technologies, narrative-enabling technology, systematic applications, the King, Warner Bros., wood pulp processing) | | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed