Thanks for your description of “angles”, “filters”, and the Interpersonal Gap.
Re your mention of the Interpersonal Gap, I further educated myself here.
It reminds me of the psych-book, Games People Play, re word/body language play.
That is infinity. Apparently, it boils down to skillful and appropriate use of intention and interpretation as priorities in order to profit from conversation, personally, writer/reader, or artist/viewer.
You mentioned “discerning plot from unusual angles” and you mentioned this as best found in film. However, a film cannot be randomly read (another advantage for the traditional book concept). The film can project a sense of randomness, disjointed layers, but only one sequence exists.
A digital movie or website could exhibit randomly though, thus alleviating ‘choice’. Page-flipping could be eliminated also. Current E-books offer this, and they could avoid repetition of sections, which can happen with manual random reading. Reader-choice could be allowed or attenuated.
I meant, ‘gathering’ the plot via random reading, and moving through many tentative plots in the process.
In terms of fiction, all writing loses control to the needs of the reader. Convention is necessary to have an audience, yet the most successful styles, as I theorize here, allow (conventional, sequential) readers the ability to ‘write’ their own book, whereby even ‘profundity’ or ‘apotheosis’ may be perceived. The artistic product is an insight-vehicle for the reader, albeit a guided tour (smile).
Yet, both comedians and judges seem to be able to specifically control their delivery and the intended effect.
You ended with, “Filters matter. Often they are integrated at such an unconscious level that it takes a lot of work to dig them out. But it’s work worth doing, in my opinion.”
Yes input/output filters/embellishers are eternal problems and capabilities.
Solitaire seems appropriate for this era.
Thanks for the link – it’s a useful document.
I’m not sure I would compare Games People Play directly to the Interpersonal Gap model, mostly because so much of Games (as I remember it, and it’s been a while) is concerned with conscious or unconscious bad intentions, and I associate the Interpersonal Gap with good intentions gone wrong. For me, it’s about clarity. Of course, we can have bad intentions and be clear about them, but then it seems to me that we are not playing games, just being clearly nasty. I find it difficult to understand how people experience this as a good thing, but mileage varies.
The ability to clearly articulate intentions, filters (coding) and effects in real-time is perhaps the most powerful communication skill I know of. I am impressed by it even in people I don’t particularly like, because their skill (and mine) makes it much easier to navigate the interpersonal friction. It incorporates awareness of self and other, and the willingness to acknowledge difference, fear and vulnerability in the service of greater connection. I’m fortunate to live with someone who has this skill in spades, and as it happens I like her very much (grin), and find our conversations rich, sometimes astonishing, sometimes terrifying, always connecting.
I believe I understand better now what you mean by random. It’s interesting to imagine moving through tentative plots toward a final understanding of the plot as it exists. A new literary concept: Shroedinger’s Plot. I only do this as a reader if my linear reading experience becomes boring or stressful. When that happens, I’ll jump around in the book to see if I can get a sense of what’s to come without necessarily connecting all the dots. I think that’s as close as I get to what you’ve described. In the best of book-worlds, I like to start at the beginning and have the story swallow me whole – and I always begin by hoping for the best.
I would paraphrase what you’re saying about writing as “everyone reads her own book.” This is, for me, related to my notions about books and multiple entry points. It’s true that any meaning (profundity, resonance) to be found in a book depends on the experience and values and desires of the reader as much as those of the writer. When these intersect in story in a way that is meaningful to both parties, well, that’s a fine moment. That’s the connection that I seek as an artist.