Re: [-empyre-] hi

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

Pre-structured narratives allow the viewer to give himself/herself up to 
the game - it's why for example one might read a novel rather than read 
hypertext. I think there's a maternal drive at work somewhere there - re: 
Kristeva perhaps. Giving oneself up is getting saved by the author/ity of 
the other; it's not masochism at work, but the mind channeling 
narrativity. In addition, narratives are at the foundation of thought 
itself - one can see this in everything from Wittgenstein's Tractatus to 
the work done on 'Scripts, Goals, and Understanding' (I think Schank and 
Abelson but am not sure). There is also suspense related to the wager and 
the lure at work - just as in a detective novel, which focuses on this 
element (creating a seduction for that matter). All of these things are in 
play - which is why mystery fiction, romance novels, and the news, 
continue to be read, in fact more than ever before - and why the 
postmodern novel has a much more limited audience -

- Alan

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