whatever promises of transformation (read: transformative experiences ) i once believed are now distant echoes, footprints in the sand on this journey to actualization. to know a person is to unwind the epistemological origins in the theory of their thought. these are the seminal pillars of how i see the world and filtered through my own cognitive machinations. big ideas, small ideas: we are a but a sum of all the influences we encounter and choose to impress upon ourselves.
notes on diegesis, intertextuality, skeumorphs, bildungsroman, zeitgeist, reflexivity, nostalgia, and so much more.
diegesis
as it happened, not as it happens
this is storytelling as we know it, passed through the oral tradition (and if lucky, written down), filtered from one person to another. it’s how we recount our memories: backwards and forwards like a film reel, recalling the cast and setting and plot points that matter. an insurgent inversion of the show not tell adage.
a style of fictional storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which: details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative. the story is told or recounted, as opposed to shown or enacted.
intertextuality
a shared body of references
shared stories that breakes boundaries of genealogy and geography; or molded into the cultural foundations or moral architecture to express the abstract and oft ineffeable. it in itself, is also generative, and as much as it contributes to the culture through its own existence, it propagates a larger artistic machine as a fountain of continued inspiration. telling the same story, but imbuing a different meaning each time.
the shaping of a text’s meaning by another text. it is the interconnection between similar or related works of literature that reflect and influence an audience’s interpretation of the text. intertextuality is the relation between texts that are inflicted by means of quotations and allusion.
bildungsroman
the formative coming of age years
it’s moody, it’s enchanting, it’s mysterious and alluring. it builds and builds, builds until it can’t take it anymore, and then explodes. we all knew how it felt once. that feeling, however fleeting or precarious or delicate, may never go away.
a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, in which character change is important.
skeumorphs
imbuing reality into fiction
if the interpretive archetypes template our sources of inspiration, we can borrow the hallmarks of reality to capture the spirit of its corpeal form. there’s something uncertaintly wonderous and awe-inspiring about the ability to render the real in imagined representations of it.
a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were inherent to the original.
zeitgeist
subconcious aesthetic
the only thing that matters in our discourse.
meaning “spirit of the age”, it refers to an invisible agent or force dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
reflexivity
the self-awareness trap
a low level of reflexivity would result in an individual shaped largely by their environment or society. a high level of social reflexivity would be defined by an individual shaping their own norms, tastes, politics, desires, and forces of autonomy.
an act of self-reference where examination or action “bends back on”, refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. it commonly refers to the capacity of an agent to recognize forces of socialization and alter their place in the social structure.
nostalgia
yearning for the yesteryear
seeking psychological equanimity looking at the past through the lens of the present in anticipation for the future.
a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. the word nostalgia is learned formation of a greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain” or “ache”. nostalgia has been found to have many functions, such as to improve mood, increase social connectedness, enhance positive self-regard, and provide existential meaning.
✨
the playground
ideas i’m nurturing, seeds i’m planting
novel of manners
a work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with finely detailed observation the customs, values, and mores of a highly developed and complex society.
performativity
a concept that can be thought of as a language which functions as a form of social action and has the effect of change.
concepts i’m playing with that defy categorization: self-narrativization, protagonist syndrome, third spaces, moral ecologies