Narrative

In Scene 78 of The Storyteller, Pierre confesses to Michel that he has been barking up the wrong tree in his approach to narrative.
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Pierre: I was trying to tell the story using only conversation. No names. No description.

Michel: And could you?

Pierre: I could not.

Michel: What was the problem?

Pierre: Names signify something. Do you know just today I found that Wanda means to wander in Wendish. And people have personalities. They are in a location. Timing is important.

Michel: You are learning. That’s context.

Pierre: I thought snatches of believable speech would be enough to build the story and run up to a climax.

Michel: A story is not just a tale told through dialogue. Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm includes a lot more. You need characters, plot, motivation, action.

Pierre: Plot.

Michel: As E.M. Forster put it. The king died and then the queen died. That’s a story. But when you say the king died and then the queen died of grief, that’s a plot.

Pierre: However unlikely.

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Iceberg Posting

You've had a really interesting career, moved around a lot, just how many countries have you been posted to?

Dunno. Started in Egypt, Libya, then Borneo. That was where I was sent back to Edwardsville to pick up five toolkits for electricians.

Ten countries?

I had the option of going where they put me or putting up with six months on an iceberg, after which I could go to Japan.

You took Japan.

And the iceberg posting turned out OK. There was an aircraft runway, a trailer park...

How big was the iceberg?

Five miles by seven miles.

Where was it?

It'd been floating around the Arctic for several years.

And how many countries have you been to do you think?

Well, after Japan, there was Korea...

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