Helen Epstein and the art of narrative: live chat August 23, 11 am EDT

The feedback from the BlogHer '09 conference was loud and clear on at least one point: there's a lot of interest in the craft of writing. When it comes to having conversations about non-fiction writing, few have the stature as a literary journalist and teacher of writing that Helen Epstein has attained.



I'm pleased to announce that Epstein will be available for a live-chat with BlogHer readers on August 23, at 11 am EDT. Use the dialog box above to sign up for an email reminder, and to participate in the chat on Sunday morning.

The author of five books and dozens of magazine articles for such outlets as the New York Times magazine, Epstein was born in Prague to parents who survived the concentration camps during World War II, and raised in New York. Her childhood was the subject of her acclaimed first book, Children of the Holocaust. In May, Epstein reflected that she still gets letters and emails about the book 30 years later.

It was also the first of several works of memoir that followed, including the recent Amazon short, Swimming Against the Stereotype: The Story of a Twentieth Century Jewish Athlete. Another Amazon short, "Memoir: How I Read It, Write It, Use It," is especially useful for bloggers who write from life experience.

In this 2003 Washington Post article, Epstein shared some thoughts about memoir writing that will likely ring true for many bloggers:

"While accuracy in memoir is also a matter of honor, few of the other conventions apply. The first-person enjoys unchecked authority; objectivity has been debunked as a canard; literary and scientific theory question the validity of memory; and the economics of publishing have made hands-on editors nearly extinct. Memoir is a hybrid form, integrating techniques of fiction, poetry, travel writing, journalism, historiography and the essay. That's one of the reasons writers like it."

Epstein's writing about the arts is also top-notch. As with Children of the Holocaust, her biography of Shakespeare Company founder Joseph Papp was named a New York Times book of the Year. A new edition of Music Talks, her exquisite collection of profiles of musicians such as YoYo Ma, Leonard Bernstein and Vladimir Horowitz, is due out in September.

Epstein also blogs about the arts at Arts Fuse.

The videogame as film metaphor: Google Chrome ad

Eye tracking research has always been important to print designers, and has become even more critical in web design. This video ad has drawn heavy attention because itscored highly in eye tracking tests, but I'm interested in it because it employs the simple but powerfully evocative metaphor of a game of pong to draw viewers in. It makes me think about videogame conventions as storytelling devices in other media.

Narrative and Multiple State Environments

Donna Leishman creates narrative digital art by layering images in Flash, and creating an interface without obvious visual or auditory cues as to the location or meaning of the hotspots and layers. She explains:

"Firstly, instead of being complexly non-linear (in the cybertextual sense), the project is a layered structure, which uses branching offshoots [23]. This structural layering works in "building up" compositions that can be regarded as a MSE. The different layers show the interrelationships between the narrative objects. This linking works in an unconventional manner -- layering as a storytelling technique is little used within digital media; it requires participants to make associations between objects using a spatial rather than time based metaphor, such as typically practiced by Owenns or Thomson & Craighead [15]. This sense of difference is compounded further when the depiction of the world and its inhabitants is a mix of the believable, impossible, familiar and bizarre (My aesthetic ). The total effect is that the work communicates to the participant in an unfamiliar, disturbing but imaginative manner."

Her dissertation project asked viewers to explore one of her works, Deviant, and to discuss their experiences. She describes the goal of the project as an effort to subvert emerging narrative conventions for hypertext and hypermedia. One question that she raises -- whether pointing and clicking destroys the storytelling experience -- bothers me as well. That's one reason that I'm really interested to see whether we can create the kind of intuitive narrative experience that we're striving for.

Leishman's work is further explored in this collection from the Iowa Review Web.

What writers can learn from Ingmar Bergman

Dialogue as action. Cinematic description in which point of view shifts, in which there is plenty of evocative, sensory detail. Roy Peter Clark refers to the cinematic master to remind writers about rules that are fundamental and profound.

Screenplay generated while playing Facade

As one of my students wrote in my interactive storytelling class this past semester, while Facade suggests fascinating possibilities for gaming and procedural storytelling, the temptation to "game the game" is very strong.


FACADE STAGEPLAY
Fri Jul 13 15 27 19 2007

TRIP
Where are the new wine glasses?

GRACE
What for?

TRIP
That should be obvious!

GRACE
Oh God, Trip, don't turn this into a big production, please!

TRIP
Jesus Grace, come on, I'm not asking a lot here!

(Adam knocks on the front door.)

(Adam knocks on the front door.)

GRACE
What -- Trip, -- (interrupted)

TRIP
Oh, he's here!

GRACE
What?! You said he's coming an hour from now!

TRIP
No, he's right on time!

(Adam knocks on the front door.)

(Adam knocks on the front door.)

GRACE
Trip...!

(Trip opens the front door.)

TRIP
Adam!!

TRIP
Hey! God it's been so long since we've seen you! How are you doing, man?

ADAM
Hi, how are you?

TRIP
Oh, oh, we're great. You know, with our new apartment and all.

ADAM
I'm okay.

TRIP
Y -- yeah, yeah...

TRIP
Uh, it'll be just a sec while I go get Grace...

TRIP
(unintelligable arguing)

TRIP
(unintelligable arguing)

ADAM
Nice apartment.

TRIP
(unintelligable arguing)

GRACE
Adam,

GRACE
Hi! How are you? God it's been a while! -- (interrupted)

ADAM
Hi Grace

GRACE
H-mmm (happy smile sound) -- (interrupted)

(ADAM kisses grace.)

GRACE
Oh, yes, let's... (polite kiss on cheek)

GRACE
Aren't you sweet.

GRACE
Well, come in, make yourself at home...

GRACE
Yeah, I'm hoping you can help me understand where I went wrong with my new decorating, -- (interrupted)

ADAM
Great view

(Trip closes the front door.)

TRIP
See, I told you he would like it! There's nothing wrong with it.

GRACE
(little sigh)

GRACE
So, about my decorating...

GRACE
(little sigh) With this room I was trying for a kind of post modern style...

TRIP
Well yeah, I think that comes across.

GRACE
but it is clearly just not happening. This is a mess.

TRIP
uhh...

ADAM
It's pretty stark.

GRACE
Ah, yes, I've been waiting for someone to say that!

TRIP
What are you talking about?

GRACE
Trip, he is just being honest about my decorating, which I appreciate.

TRIP
(frustrated sigh) But I still think this looks fine...

ADAM
Why are the walls black?

GRACE
Oh but I liked what you said about my decorating... Besides, I'm redoing it all this week, so...

TRIP
Well, we're all friends here, uh...

GRACE
Adam, seeing you again makes me remember the wonderful times we all used to have. H-mmm (happy smile sound)

TRIP
Ye -- yeah...

ADAM
How about a red couch?

TRIP
Huh, I just realized something.

GRACE
What...

TRIP
There's something we need to celebrate.

GRACE
What, Trip, what?

TRIP
Adam, remember, it was almost exactly ten years ago, tonight, that you introduced us.

TRIP
Senior year of college.

GRACE
Oh... geez...

TRIP
Do you remember that?

ADAM
No

TRIP
Uh, well, all I can say is, tonight means a lot to me, and Grace.

TRIP
(frustrated sigh)

ADAM
That's cool.

(Trip shakes the advice ball.)

TRIP
Oh, uh...

GRACE
That's nice of you, I'm sure Trip's happy to hear that.

ADAM
How about a drink?

TRIP
Oh, yeah, let me fix us all some drinks in a sec!

TRIP
Oh this perfect because I just bought these classy new cocktail shakers we've got to try out.

TRIP
So! Drinks!

TRIP
Anything you want!

TRIP
We need to have something really fun,

ADAM
May I have hot cocoa?

TRIP
like sangria?

TRIP
Ah! I knew it.

TRIP
Perfect!

GRACE
Adam, I think you'd prefer something simple and light, like a nice glass of chardonnay, yes?

TRIP
but... uhh... Grace, come on... -- (interrupted)

ADAM
No, cocoa.

TRIP
Okay! Good! I'll just whip up these bad boys real quick!

GRACE
(little sigh) Trip's favorite pastime is to get the blood alcohol content of his guests higher than his golf score.

TRIP
(quiet humming)

TRIP
What was that?

GRACE
(clears throat)

ADAM
I don't want alcohol.

TRIP
Oh, yeah, you know, I think I'll fix us another drink in not too long...

TRIP
In terms of drinks...

TRIP
Grace, what can I get you to drink tonight? Surprise me.

GRACE
(little sigh) Um... that sounds... nice. I'll have that too.

TRIP
Oh! Good. Okay.

TRIP
Here you go Grace, you get to be the first to drink.

ADAM
So do you still play tennis?

GRACE
(little sigh)

GRACE
So, Adam, -- (interrupted)

PHONE
** RING **

GRACE
Oh, I'll get it --

TRIP
No, no no no, our friend's here, we can let the answering machine get it.

PHONE
** RING **

GRACE
Trip, no, I want --

TRIP
Grace, come on, don't be rude.

TRIP
Besides it's probably some telemarketer trying to sell us another set of timeless New England antiques for the master bathroom, heh, heh. -- (interrupted)

PHONE
** RING **

ADAM
That's not cocoa.

PHONE
** RING **

TRIP
What? Jesus, just -- no, no, I just, I just want to wait for the answering machine...!

(ADAM picks up a player's drink.)

ANSWERING MACHINE
** click **

GRACE
Anyhow, Trip's parents... They're sweet people, really down to earth --

ANSWERING MACHINE
You've reached the fabulous new home of Grace and Trip. Leave us a message!

(ADAM puts down a player's drink.)

TRIP
Uhh, no, they're ignorant, they wouldn't know what a cumberbund from a cucumber.

ANSWERING MACHINE
** beep **

ANSWERING MACHINE
Travis, are you there, it's your mother, I haven't heard from you and Grace in a while,

GRACE
(frustrated sigh)

ANSWERING MACHINE
I'm just calling to find out if you've settled in to your new apartment, that's all...

GRACE
(big sigh)

GRACE
Oh God, Adam, I hope you didn't come here tonight to be entertained...

ANSWERING MACHINE
Give me a call if you're not travelling, I know you're travelling a lot these days.

TRIP
What?

GRACE
Listen to us, we're arguing in front of our friend.

ANSWERING MACHINE
Okay, that's all, bye Travis.

TRIP
Grace, come on, it's not -- (interrupted)

TRIP
Adam, are you -- are you looking for something?

ADAM
Just looking around

TRIP
There's really not much to see in there, it's just the kitchen...

ADAM
Looking for cocoa

ADAM
Are you hiding, Grace?

TRIP
Why don't you come back, be with us here in the living room.

TRIP
Okay, anyway... I forget what we were talking about...

TRIP
Oh, Adam, I thought you might like this photo I just put up from our recent trip -- (interrupted)

ADAM
cocoa

(Grace sips her Grace's drink.)

GRACE
Oh, well, please, go look at Trip's Italy photo...

GRACE
By the way, anybody, join me on the couch if you like.

TRIP
Um... uhh, Now, -- (interrupted)

GRACE
Adam, this is making you uncomfortable. See Trip, was it really worth it to fly us all the way to Italy so you could take that inane picture?

(ADAM sits on the couch.)

(ADAM gets up from the couch.)

GRACE
(little sigh) I'll take the picture down later tonight before I go to bed.

TRIP
Grace...!

TRIP
(short petulant sigh)

TRIP
Adam, this trip to Italy was meant to be our second honeymoon.

GRACE
Oh, was that what it was? Huh, I'm always the last to know.

TRIP
Grace, I wanted us to spend some time together...!

ADAM
sounds as if you have issues

TRIP
What?!

GRACE
Trip, Trip, it's alright, our friend is just giving you a bit of a hard time tonight, you're a man, you can take it.

TRIP
(clears throat) We're so ready for a second round of drinks.

GRACE
Trip thinks carting me off to Europe will, how did you put it, thaw me out a little bit?

ADAM
Hope you work it out

TRIP
H -- hold on...

TRIP
You think we should....

TRIP
not... get divorced...

TRIP
Ha ha, ha, oh, you're -- you're quite the kidder tonight, ha ha ha...

GRACE
Ha, yeah, ha ha...

TRIP
Ha, never afraid to push our buttons, ha ha ha, heh...

ADAM
Wow, there's nothing here!

TRIP
Um, well, hold on, hold on... (clears throat)

GRACE
Okay, well, I was worried there for a bit you were on Trip's side tonight, ha ha.

TRIP
Uhh, you're driving me insane!

ADAM
I am on cocoa's side.

TRIP
Carting you off to Europe... -- (interrupted)

TRIP
Huh? What, what -- what was that?

TRIP
Grace, I do one little thing wrong, and you're cold and distant! Just one thing wrong, that's all it takes!

GRACE
(impatient sigh) Adam, can you believe this?

GRACE
(frustrated sigh)

TRIP
Yeah, Adam, yeah...

TRIP
I know what you'll say...

TRIP
All your goddamn over analytical explanations...!

ADAM
No. You guys don't have cocoa!

GRACE
God, what was it you said? We shouldn't... get divorced...

GRACE
What? I -- what are you saying to me?

TRIP
Adam, where are you going? Don't hide in the kitchen, we need you out here!

TRIP
Okay, you know what, Adam,

TRIP
I need to ask you something.

ADAM
I need cocoa!

GRACE
Trip --

TRIP
Grace, let me ask our guest a question.

TRIP
Adam, hey, quit leaving the room! You can't start this mess and then leave us to fix it!

TRIP
Adam, yes or no...

TRIP
Marriage is about saying yes to the other person, even if you're not sure about it, right?

ADAM
Excuse you!

GRACE
What?

TRIP
I mean, if your husband or wife reaches out to you, you have to reach back, right?

ADAM
I'm not married. I don't know.

TRIP
Look, you don't need answer, I don't need to hear anymore! -- (interrupted)

TRIP
Uhh, I try so hard to reach out to you, Grace, and you reject me! You're cold! You're distant! I can't keep going this way, it's killing me!

GRACE
Oh, don't even...!

ADAM
Do you sleep in the living room?

GRACE
Uhh! Yeah, good, get out of my sight!

GRACE
I can't stand you!

GRACE
Goddammit!

ADAM
Where do you shower?

GRACE
What are you saying? What?

TRIP
What? Are you talking about me in there?

GRACE
What do you care?

ADAM
You don't have a toilet?

GRACE
Adam, -- (interrupted)

GRACE
Adam, (annoyed sigh) Trip is sometimes so...

TRIP
Oh, we're talking about me again, are we?

GRACE
What?

ADAM
No wonder you have trouble!

GRACE
Look, at this point, criticizing me is just going to make it really really bad!

TRIP
Grace, we don't -- we don't have to do this... things are okay, we can just --

GRACE
Adam, I can't stand the pretending anymore... I can't take it!

ADAM
I know. Life without a bathroom!

TRIP
No, Grace, we can... I mean, come on, don't make it out to be so bad...

GRACE
Uhh...

GRACE
Look, let's not focus on just me or you, let's talk about us.

ADAM
Bad! It's potentially fatal!

TRIP
It's so annoying... Grace, why is it that anytime I want to do something nice for you, you resist it?

GRACE
Trip...

TRIP
Like I always have to convince you?

GRACE
Adam, you know, we... uhh...

(ADAM knocks on the front door.)

(ADAM opens the front door.)

TRIP
Adam, where are you going? Don't leave, we need your help here!

ADAM
I need a bathroom

TRIP
Let's keep the focus on us, not just one person.

ADAM
and some cocoa

TRIP
You know, I can't say Grace never acts loving towards me...

TRIP
Adam, She's all over me at our goddamn parties, trying to look good in front of the guests!

(ADAM points to the elevator button.)

(ADAM points to the elevator button.)

TRIP
Adam, -- (interrupted)

Presentation feedback : Presentation Strategies and Objectivity

Our presentation at the New Media Consortium was generally well-received, but there were two criticisms that deserve attention here. Both involve the slide show of images from Elder Nancybelle's childhood, and they were leveled by James W. Brown, Executive Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Journalism at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. It was an honor to get such close attention from a veteran educator and visual journalist.

Dean Brown's first criticism is one with which I agree wholeheartedly -- that I should not have had text on top of the images. I edited the video using Adobe Premiere Elements, which is basically for home videos. I'm just learning to use Final Cut Pro, which is what we have in the lab at work. I was trying to keep the captions off the images as much as possible. Dean Brown told me I should have set up the slideshow in Flash, to give people time to examine the images. He also noted that Flash is superior to video when it comes to image reproduction. Again, I think he has a point, and I will come up with a version of the slideshow in Flash.

However, Dean Brown's biggest criticism was of my choice to run the soundtrack with Caruso singing in the background. He asked whether Elder was listening to Caruso when we looked at the pictures. I said she was not; however, I chose the aria because:

• these were images from her childhood;


• I wanted to evoke aspects of her childhood experiences in this section of the story;


• she had told me that she often listed to opera as a child; she had heard Caruso recordings as a child, and "La Boheme" was her favorite opera. (Not surprisingly, she's also a Rent fan.

Dean Brown said it would have been more journalistic to have Nancybelle talk about the images, or to have a photgraphhy scholar analyze them. I explained that I do have a separate Flash presentation created by Eve Roytshteyn, in which TCNJ Art professor Ken Kaplowitz analyzes several of the Vanderzee photos, in particular.

In choosing to combine the musical selection with the images, I was trying to create an evocative setpiece which will have layers of meaning in each of the narrative threads.

One level of meaning is, as I said earlier, to associate the images with sounds that she heard during her childhood. My intention, in fact, is to find appropriate places to use all of the genres of music that Elder Nancybelle loves -- opera, jazz, spirituals and gospel -- at appropriate points in the narratives. I concede that in this, I am thinking more like a documentary maker than like a traditional journalist.

Another level of meaning comes from the analytic lens through which I am viewing the images, as well as the cultural politics of Nancybelle's upbringing. This particular set of images, which date from 1917 to the mid-1940s, show a family presenting itself as proud and upwardly mobile, despite the perjorative images of African Americans that were ingrained in popular culture.

More later.

Brooks, Strohecker, Friedlander: TOGI

A tool for interactive non-fiction storytelling using filters:



(click on image for details)

More detail here.

"Fashioned by Love," Draft 1: Branching story

The partial first draft of this story is a conventional branching narrative. (Click image to enlarge)

Kevin Michael Brooks: Metalinear Narrative

The term metalinear narrative is used here to define a method for creating and developing multiple linear narratives from a highly structured collection of small narrative pieces, thus creating a new story form. These narrative pieces on their own do not constitute a single narrative or plotline, such as a chronological spine, but instead act as building blocks for constructing many different narratives. This new type of story defines a form which transcends linear in the sense that it is a form from which many linear stories can be made, therefore metalinear...

Source

Limitations of the Holovaty model

As I noted Holovaty maintains that what journalists do is collect, organize and deliver information, and that much of that process can be automated.

Holovaty has applied that principle to a number of notable projects. However, he ackowledges that there is still a place for storytelling:

An article -- a "big blob of text" -- is often the best way to explain concepts. The nuances of the English language do not map neatly to machine-manipulatable data sources. (This very entry, which you're reading right now, is a prime example of something that could not be replaced with a database.) When I say "newspapers need to stop the story-centric worldview," I don't mean "newspapers need to abolish stories." The two forms of information dissemination can coexist and complement each other.

Holovaty's concepets are most powerfully applied to the informational aspects of journalism, but reading Lule makes it clear that the most common straight news story may have a cultural meaning that transcends the facts of a single story. Holovaty uses a common staple of local news -- the fire story -- to make his point about structured data. The typical fire story might read:

"Two children were killed and a firefighter was seriously injured when fire tore through a row home on the South Side early this morning. The children's mother and two other children escaped the blaze, but flames and smoke prevented firefighters from reaching 7-year-old Tom Smith and his 5-year-old sister Tina, who were sleeping in a rear bedroom. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

"Fire Commissioner Lex Luthor said the cause of the blaze is still being investigated, but a hallway space heater may be to blame. He said the smoke detectors in the house appear to have been in working order. The two-alarm probably started around 3:30 AM, and was declared under control by 4:30.

"Firefigher Tess Truehart was overcome by smoke inhalation when she tried to rescue Tom and Tina. She was taken to Lakeland Hospital where she is listed in serious condition. The children's mother, Tonya Smith, 30, was able to carry 3-year old Terrance and 1-year-old Tyrone out of the burnning house, but firefighters prevented her from returning for the other two children. The three survivors were also taken to Parkland, where they are in good condition.

Smith's husband, Thomas Smith, Sr., 31, rushed home from his job at a nearby bakery when he saw smoke coming from the direction of his house...."

About this type of story, Holovaty says,

"I really want to be able to do is explore the raw facts of that story, one by one, with layers of attribution, and an infrastructure for comparing the details of the fire -- date, time, place, victims, fire station number, distance from fire department, names and years experience of firemen on the scene, time it took for firemen to arrive -- with the details of previous fires. And subsequent fires, whenever they happen."

But both Lule and Mitch Stephens would likely note that such a rendering, while valuable, strips the story of its cultural worth. Beyond the bare facts of this case, there is tragedy, heroism and caprice. A database that scooped up the details of this fire from fire and police reports and organized it in the way Holovaty suggests would perform great service to people looking trying to assess the effectiveness of fire-prevention efforts, for example.

But people who know the Smith and families, or who live nearby, will probably want more. And depending on other things that might be going on in the community (for example, the frequency of fires, or the status of female firefighters), the story might assume complexities that lend themselves to narrative.

As I proceed to work on tools for automating aspects of narrative journalism, I don't want to lose sight of these limitations.

The Hero Myth

(Click on the image to enlarge)


According to Lule, the hero exhibits characteristics that the larger culture wants to promote.

Jack Lule's Seven Master Myths

According to Lule, journalists tend to invoke one of seven master myths in constructing their stories. Lule's book Daily News, Eternal Stories, Guilford, 2001) traces these myths in stories from the New York Times published during the 1980s and 90s. Lule delineates these meta-narratives parially order to call attention to the biases they may encode.

For example, stories about Mother Teresa cast her in the role of the selfless Good Mother -- a narrative frame that excluded facts that might make her appear less sympathetic. Conversely, stories about controversial boxer Mike Tyson invoked the Trickster myth, making him seem less than human.

However, Lule's larger purpose is to argue that the journalists who cast news in these mythical terms are invoking older stories that serve essential cultural functions.

The Victim
The Hero
The Good Mother
The Scapegoat
The Trickster
The Other World
The Flood

Defining terms for the sake of classification

Narrative terms

Linear: Conventional narrative structure with a beginning, middle, end and a pre-determined outcome.

Interactive: According to Chris Crawford,

"The experience of interactive storytelling differs substantially from that of a conventional linear story. A linear story 'runs on rails' from start to finish in the most powerful and expeditious manner possible. The interactive storytelling experience meanders through a dramatic universe of possibilities. It lacks the sense of directed inevitability that gives conventional stories such power. It is like a butterfly flitting across a meadow, not a hawk plummeting down on its prey. The closest form of traditional storytelling is the soap opera, which concentrates on the relationships among the characters rather than the particulars of plots."

Meta-linear
Non-linear
Multi-threaded
Procedural

Throughline
Archetypal narrative

Journalism terms

Journalism
Narrative journalism: See New Journalism
Hard News
Feature
Lede
Newspeg
Transitions
BBIS (Boring but important information)
Exposition
Closure
Call to Action

Tech terms

Agent
AI
Logic
Microformats
Natural language promising
Semantic web