Stories in the history of written language (part 7)

The origins of literature To define narrative formally is to accept, perhaps dangerously, the idea or the feeling that the origins of narrative are self-evident, that nothing is more natural than to tell a story or to arrange a group of actions into a myth, a short story, an epic, a novel. (Genette and Levonas…

“Can a whole country have main character syndrome?”

This is a quote from YouTuber Emma Thorne in her video Evangelical Conspiracy Movie: Trump 2024 Recap, referring to the United States. Thorne herself is from the UK. Main character syndrome is an informal, nonscientific term to describe someone who thinks of their life like a story in which they are the main character. In…

Stories in ludology & narratology (part 2)

In Part 1, we discussed the origin of play, the relationship between game mechanics and interactive narrative, and the specific examples of Tetris and Monopoly. In this post, we’ll take a look at what happens when gameplay and narrative clash, what can be done to avoid it, and how it can be used to the…

Stories in ludology & narratology (part 1)

Ludology and narratology are the two sides of the coin that is the study of games (in the non-mathematical sense). Ludology is the study of game mechanics and rules, and narratology is the study of story and setting. Ludology is closer to math, while narratology is closer to literary analysis. Narratology of games is particularly…