The common meaning of "plot" is just "the things that happen in a story", but there's a more technical definition that refers specifically to the events that form a chain of cause and effect to move a story forward. I'm not enough of a prescriptivist to say the second definition is more "correct", but I do think it's useful.
In the real world we have a tendency to construct a "narrative identity" for ourselves, organizing life's events into a plot, ignoring gaps in the chain and seeing each effect as the single inevitable outcome of a cause. And that's usually fine, it helps us construct a sense of meaning and purpose. However, it's sometimes helpful to temporarily suspend our desire for meaning and appreciate that our present isn't chained to every single moment of our past.
I'm very interested in thinking that stories could step back from the idea of "plot" in a similar way.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread | More toots from montag@hackers.town
text/gemini
This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).