My current thinking is that I should concentrate my efforts on research that will ease the way for future creators of interactive storyworlds. One of the avenues I am considering is an analysis of simple stories. Now, we already have a huge amount of work on folktales, most notably the Aarne-Thompson_Uther classification system of motifs from folktales. While this work is extensive, it doesn’t give us much that we can use because it classifies Objects, not Processes. For interactivity, we need to focus on the verbs, or processes taking place in the story worlds. It therefore appears that I’ll have to begin this work.
I first thought that I would begin with the Little Golden Books, because these present the simplest possible stories. After some research, though, I concluded that these are primarily intended to teach reading. The Disney Little Golden Books look more promising, and I’ll be investigating those. But I thought I’d take a preliminary attempt at the problem with a simple folktale. I found an excellent site bursting with a huge collection of folktales. After poking around a little, I decided to work with a Chinese folktale: The Golden Beetle or Why the Dog Hates the Cat. This will be my first guinea pig. You can read this folktale on its web page.
At first I thought it worthwhile to condense each sentence to some basic form, but I found this too tedious, so instead I am condensing each paragraph or major atom of dramatic action into a single sentence.
Level I: reduction of events to sentences
Dramatis personae: Widow Wang, her son, Whitehead the Cat, Blackfoot the dog, the bald priest, Mr. and Mrs. Chu.
1. Widow Wang and her son are starving.
2. Her son had a job, but got sick and lost his job.
3. Bald priest gives Widow Wang the magic golden beetle.
4. Widow Wang uses the magic golden beetle to fully feed the entire family.
5. She invites Mr. and Mrs. Chu to a big feast.
6. Mrs. Chu figures out that the magic golden beetle is the source of her abundant food.
7. Mrs. Chu steals the magic golden beetle.
8. Mr. and Mrs. Chu grow fat while Widow Wang’s family starves.
9. Whitehead the cat figures out that Mrs. Chu stole the magic golden beetle.
10. Whitehead and Blackfoot travel to Mrs. Chu’s house, overcoming many obstacles.
11. Whitehead steals the magic golden beetle.
12. On the way home, Whitehead stupidly lets the magic golden beetle fall into the river.
13. A friendly frog retrieves the magic golden beetle for them.
14. On returning home, Blackfoot is unable to enter the house.
15. Whitehead returns the magic golden beetle to Widow Wang, and they all feast — except for Blackfoot.
16. Whitehead taunts Blackfoot about not being in the feast.
17. Blackfoot kills Whitehead.
18. This is why dogs hate cats now.
Level II: Abstracting persons and verbs
A. Protagonist suffers hardship.
B. Fate provides a secret solution.
C. Protagonist shares secret with antagonist.
D. Antagonist steals the secret.
E. Two helpers restore the secret to Protagonist.
F. One helper betrays the other helper.
G. The second helper kills the first helper.
This now appears to be two separate stories: A through E and F and G.
Level III: Highest level of abstraction
1. Protagonist suffers hardship.
2. Fate ends the hardship.
3. Protagonist acts foolishly.
4. Antagonist takes advantage of Protagonist’s foolishness to hurt Protagonist.
5. Helpers restore the situation.
Another Folktale: Iktomi and the Ducks
This is a Native American folktale.
Dramatis Personae: Iktomi, ducks, wolves
1. Iktomi is a strange character.
2. He is selfish, lazy, wily, and has no friends.
3. One day, he tricks the ducks and kills some to eat.
4. He cooks the ducks.
5. Fate tricks him and imprisons him in a tree.
6. He warns some passing wolves not to eat his ducks.
7. So they eat his ducks.
8. He tells them not to eat the ducks baking in the ashes.
9. So they dig out the ducks baking in the ashes and eat them.
10. The wolves leave and Fate releases Iktomi.
To be honest, I don’t understand this story.