A. You’re always saying more than you know. So, make sure you’re saying what you mean. 'Symbolism' refers generally to metonymy, one way or another, one thing howsoever suggesting if not signifying another, however similar or different, the systematic utilization of symbols in order to represent or allude to something or anything else, particularly as a rhetorical device central to the meaning of a written work, and especially including the revelation or suggestion or Objective Correlative of intangible conditions or truths by just such artistic invention.

Layers of subtext and ambiguity render the experience thereof that much richer and more thought provoking. Of course, all such subtexting does also run the risk of somewhat questionable free association and projection, actual creativity rather than wholly reliable deduction, perhaps occasionally somewhat far fetched, no matter the various different Factors Affecting/Effecting the Reading of Texts. For, one way or another, art usually strives at communication. And The Problem of Meaning in Literature begins with the age old conundrum of layered text, context and subtext, of whether meaning is simply recognition of authorial intention, text content , or even created by the reader in response either thereof, each and all along with the Pathetic Fallacy respectably rejected as THE 4 DEADLY FALLACIES in favor, instead, of an hypothesis of reciprocal creative misunderstanding from fecund ambiguity.

Zen  in rejection of explanation as such, likewise strives for clarity and preciseness of allegorical imagery, pointing to that which defies direct description, all in the ardent cultivation of immediacy and awakening to mindful heightened awareness of experience, and thence the rejection of conceptualization as burdensome self-conscious encumbrance and suffering, wherein the Zen quests for the complete abandonment of understanding as such. Indeed, the draw of cult initiation into the quest for enlightenment and the snares exploitation alike, is in the hope that with perseverance all that is nebulous, obscure and even dubious, will become intelligible and important later on.

The truth remains, however, that imagery is hardly actually necessary to begin with for abstract thought, and indeed even seemingly somewhat unwieldy, indeed perhaps among the least practical of intellectual tools, but actually only the more challenging. And so, where is any advantage therein thereby? The answer is, emphatically, that the entire point of employing imagery symbolically or evocatively nevertheless remains in howsoever greater economy, stronger impression or greater familiarity with whatever selected images, than with whatever more difficult and as yet indistinct ideas represented for examination in order to be clarified.

Moreover, an image may be rendered so specifically in its focus and particular selected descriptive detail as to render all other broader aspects vague and alien, indeed, to increase the difficulty, effort and length of imaginative perception as an aesthetic end in itself in order thereby prolonged, all in quest of unfamiliar new recognition even of the most familiar and thereby to express anything more.

For in art for it's own sake, in authorship no less than performance or presentation, and beyond howsoever polemic, the experience of the process of construction may be the salient motivating goal ever put forth the more so than whatever finished product or end impression.

• Examples of Art as Technique  
• analogy Vs. Metaphor

As another artful way to show, don't tell, symbols arise and enrich from analogy, allegory and imagery, events even foreshadowed by anticipatory imagery, even to the point of Pathetic Fallacy.  Hence, the symbolist movement sought to convey very personal, irrational, and dream-like states of consciousness, relying heavily on metaphorical language, and the interpretation of symbols and metaphorical association also plays an important role in psychoanalysis, especially as envisioned by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Of course, all such subtexting does also run the risk of somewhat questionable free association and projection, actual creativity rather than wholly reliable deduction, perhaps occasionally somewhat far fetched.

Not only is symbolism employed in the euphemistic description of sex, but sex, likewise and conversely, is often symbolic euphemism, deftly sublime or tastelessly inept, and for all manner of other relations and phenomena, sacred and profane. Moreover, waking or dreaming, every aspect or nuance of human relations, sex especially, is often imbued with any range of extrinsic significance, even far short of fetish and paraphilia.

Advertising didn't mix sex up with our daily lives. The great Marketeer in the sky did that.  — Barry Brooks

symbolism and polysemy

And whereas a word seeks for definition and disambiguation, as professor of British literature William York Tindall observes, a symbol, rather, by it's nature and usage, polysemic and freighted with multiple, related meanings, strives for expansion in reflection of the ambiguity and and often value loaded abstraction out of memory association and personal constructs of social cognition built from successive red herrings, innate naturally flawed Epistemological Methodology, the ambiguous diffŽrance of symbolic condensation allows for a host of potential responses depending upon context, textual, cultural or entirely personal and individual to the reader. Integrative symbolic compositions are often evocative rather than merely indicative, abstract rather than concrete, to encompass both thesis and antithesis as in the Zen dualistic opposition of Yin and Yang, often somewhat vague in sheer expansiveness even of the fragmentary, religious modes of being and transcendent mystical connection or associations including mythic magical rhythms of existence, powers and influences of similarity and contiguity as exposited in 'The Golden Bough' A Study in Magic and Religion by the noted Anthropologist Sir James George Frazer in 1922.

• Analyzing Metaphor and Symbol
• Bohmian Dialogue

By contrast, excessively pat, trite, glib and superficially complete allegory insults the intelligence, and often at the expense of unique and original well rounded and multifaceted characterization.

Q. What arevalues?

A.   Click here

Q. What is meaning?

• The meaning of meaning

"Man is the measure of all things." - Protagoras

Even if literally Jonah in the Bible was swallowed by a giant fish, we now better know and understand whales in reality to be, like dolphins and porpoises, mammalian cetaceans, sea going bovines, aquatic cows! Likewise, regardless of propaganda exploiting the ill informed etymology of the very word 'conception' as beginning new life, actually fertilization is continuous from the preceding lives of the parents via their zygotes into the inception of the development of a new individual of whatever species, as yet unformed into existence. For just as with logic, language alone cannot discover truth which is correspondence to reality, without Empirical data. Ideas are DESIGNATIONS or TERMS or CONCEPTS or else they are STATEMENTS or PROPOSITIONS or THEORIES. And STATEMENTS or PROPOSITIONS or THEORIES may be formulated in ASSERTIONS, perhaps TRUE and even in turn reducible by DERIVATION to simpler PRIMITIVE PROPOSITIONS ultimately unto infinite regress, but never to any mythic first principles. Likewise, DESIGNATIONS or TERMS or CONCEPTS may be formulated in WORDS, perhaps MEANINGFULLY and even in turn reduced by way of definitions to concepts in turn begging further definition likewise unto infinite regress and never to any mythic self evidence.

Nevertheless, meaning in the poetical, philosophical and literary deepest sense of human implications and consequence vests the dharmic neutrality of the indefinable and classifications of merely physical and implicit consequence of mechanistic causality, grappling with the dharmic and karmic indefinable classifications of causality, and ever best achieving "unity of action", Sequence and plot logic with relevant karmic value, point, the meaning of life, inspiration and motivation of howsoever pleasurable and even euphoric engagement, susceptibility and stimulation of the mind or exaltation of the emotions to a high level of feeling or activity even to sudden exciting thought and spontaneous creativity, with purpose, interest, engagement and satisfaction howsoever in the doing instead of the dreary and painfully meaningless and futile drudgery, empty diversion, interpersonal superficiality and sheer boredom so many endure; perhaps such as beyond self, connection and contribution, even Altruism in service to others. 

Because meaning, including value, none the least morality and even esthetics, are Phenomenal and contingent experience no less than comprehension and reflection along the arc of motivated character growth.

Indeed, Plot situation and character motivation, together equal dramatic destiny, because the literal oxymoron of inherent meaning as a poetical figure is inherent only dharmicly implicit in causal consequence, the function and importance of plot logic in drama, while, dualistically, simultaneously, as a matter of POV, subjectivity, reflection and Representation of Consciousness, also alluding to purpose of personal fulfillment, Perceiving What's at Stake in Your Story along with the six core motivations for dialogue, all relevant value, what matters deeply, none the least of which being classic reversals as in the estrangement of the bullied idealistic whistle blower, pressing positive disintegration and growth if not towards the highest self-actualization then at least to realer freedom and autonomy, all without which life itself threatens Zen futile Ecclesiastical vanity! and such literal meaning, only then, as may be expressed, also, in the intention of deeds, including that which is most broadly signified in the act of communication of any message with the six core polemically purposeful and dramatic motivations for dialogue, TEXT and subtext all in CONTEXT, information content, ideas, indeed conveying Phenomenal subjective experience or understanding, unless, most narrowly, scientifically, literally and precisely, denotatively or referentially, that which is signified and thus conjectured, is simply and clearly whatever corresponding objective reality, Ontologically, hence, also, implication, inference of evidence, and logically inherent and implicit consequence and Deterministic inescapable causal effect, that inspires bleak fatalism but also liberation, optimistic hope in better knowledge and even wisdom, for discovering better choices, autonomously.  

• Reading Strategies
• Active Reading
• Active Listening
• Listen Long: Principles for Effective Listening.
• excellence in Miscommunication Competence and Conversational Adequacy
• Representation of Consciousness

Q. What is Active Reading?

"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."

- Simone Weil   

A. Reading comprehension frequently demands that much more than simply decoding of the very words and then parsing of phraseology.

In an experiment with the formatting of text, it was discovered that some prefer shorter line length facilitating “faster” reading, easier because it requires less eye movement, while those preferring longer line length appreciate having more information readily available on a page all at once.

And in all likelihood, the same principle applies even to sentence structure:
Short sentences in succession may seem more readily digestible, but longer compound sentences help relate more ideas at a glance.

Indeed, one common impediment to speed reading, either skimming quickly for an overview or scanning briefly for specific information, is sub vocalization while another is the tendency for the eye to scan every word. And remedies include actually passing ones finger over a line of text faster than one can sound out the words. Also try looking slightly above the line in order to focus upon grammatical clusters of words. With practice one can accustom oneself to see and understand phrases simply even by glancing over them. But that requires practice and may find only somewhat limited application to complex materials. Instead, deciding what seems useful or not, "Key Ideas" to ferret out include causal connection, as in plot, but also theme.

For the techniques of  Active Reading no less than Effective Active Listening, is reading such as involves active cognition and comprehension, indeed, reading with purpose. -Conscious effort to hear, observe or read, then analyze, assign meaning to and respond, as applicable, to what is being communicated.

Tip: In case of incomplete comprehension, Improv, actually pretend, play-act understanding and then explain, either to another or to yourself, out loud, silently in your own mind or most productively, in writing.

 

Often we understand more than we think! Note what does and what else does not make sense. Subtext clues: Consider context and background. Articulate questions as to whatever remains unclear. And whenever you find yourself still really getting stuck, just mark or note the section and take a much needed breather.

 

The very opposite of Effective Active Listening might be Constructivist Listening, a process of passively allowing a person to talk without being interrupted, with nary ever a care regarding Miscommunication Competence or Conversational Adequacy, indeed wherein listeners neither overtly respond nor interpret at all, neither to paraphrase, analyze, proffer advice nor seek to relate via personal stories, all because people are simply held to be capable of solving their own problems by thinking aloud. -All very much in accord with Nihilistic value destruction as implicit to the Solipsistic Zen position upon dialogue.

 

Indeed, bearing in my mind that listening is to be for whatever the other's benefit, in Constructivist Listening one simply does not ask questions for one's own information at all, nor need much care. Constructivist listening, then, seeks the benefit of expression but without valuing communication. An applied Narcissistic Solipsistic Zen paradox of the intimately impersonalized.

 

And as much as genial good listeners may be pleasant to be acquainted with in real life, nevertheless, in dramatic writing, naturally all such characters must be poisonously dull.

 

"A man who listens because he has nothing to say can hardly be a source of inspiration. The only listening that counts is that of the talker who alternatively absorbs and expresses ideas."

- Repplier, Agnes

 

Reading, no less than really listening, is hard work, the sustained effort born of concern and involvement, which takes a lot of time. 

However, true shaggy dog stories are very, very long drawn out allegedly humorous anecdotes building up to a punch line that distinctly fizzles, a groaner. Whereas, the emphasis in Minimalist stories is upon inner conflict, and the central characters are often reactive rather than proactive, so that Minimalist, open and unresolved vignettes, indeed, even aimlessly wandering anticlimactic shaggy dog stories that  do not affect change in the lives of the characters, who come away much the same as when the story or sequence began. For such is the flatness in Raymond Carver's blue-collar fiction, in which characters wander in and out of otherwise unoccupied rooms, houses, or apartments, failing to transcend the banality of their situations, affect their outcomes, or make their lives meaningful, all such conventional dramatic contrivance and cherished illusions abandoned perhaps in favor of local dexterity. Indeed, if any of the questions raised in the story are answered, others remain for the audience to ponder. Indeed, the Existential Zen-like, New Wave, Phildickian, Surreal Anti-drama or Anti-Structure deals in conflicting realities, delving into meaningless absurdity, likewise, effecting little change, however character development  or growth. Time frame is often broken up randomly, and coincidence seems more common than plot causality.

While beyond and distinct from drama yet still short of sheer Postmodern Nihilism, in Literature (As distinguished, narrowly defined and signified by the much vaunted capital "L"), all the indefinable and classifications of plot causality ever best achieving "unity of action", Sequence and logic, plus character development, tone and subtext are even the more thematic towards effect upon inner life, drama of a sort, but introverted, specifically requiring such sequence and relation of events as to cultivate meaning in the mind and experience of the characters and/or for the reader in the experience of reading the work, even so far as eliciting that extra added effort in active reading that is sometimes referred to as the reader's partnership with the author that can even go beyond simple information transmission and begin the creation of fresh Philosophical insight, narrative that not only challenges the reader's higher level interpretive and analytical faculties in processing but then evokes the construction, reflection and experience of differing individual emotional response and opinion and even subsequent debate, engagement with ideas well beyond simple assimilation of story information and all the more obvious sympathy triggers or pathos in time tested sequence.

• Active Reading
• Active Listening
• Listen Long: Principles for Effective Listening.
• Representation of Consciousness

six core polemically purposeful

and dramatic motivations for written

expression or dialogue

• Understanding the rhetorical situation[ism]
• The Art of Reading

• poetry  

   

Q. What uniquely profound level of conflict is most intrinsically Literate?

For: Whereas, in dramatizing controversy, POV facilitating levels of inner motivated conflict and dramatic dialogue makes it hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. "In a good play, everyone is right."  But how far would they go? Or will they change and grow? For in the words of Albert Bandura: “People's level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively the case.” 

Beyond and aside from dramatic vehicle for dialectic, Literature as distinguished, narrowly defined and signified by the much vaunted capital "L," opens further sophisticated repertoire of tension, that of sublime ambiguity of symbolism in expanding usage, subtext against TEXT and CONTEXT, even howsoever of POV, subjectivity, reflection and Representation of Consciousness, problems explored in theme under guidance of premise, even Existential Anti-Structure of Anti-drama, even seeming contradiction in reality itself, with symbolism, abstract rather than concrete, even as to encompass both thesis and antithesis as in the dualistic opposition of Yin and Yang.

Layers of subtext and ambiguity render the experience thereof that much richer and more thought provoking. Of course, all such subtexting does also run the risk of somewhat questionable free association and projection, actual creativity rather than wholly reliable deduction, perhaps occasionally somewhat far fetched, no matter the various different Factors Affecting/Effecting the Reading of Texts. For, one way or another, art usually strives at communication. And The Problem of Meaning in Literature begins with the age old conundrum of layered text, context and subtext, of whether meaning is simply recognition of authorial intention, text content , or even created by the reader in response either thereof, each and all along with the Pathetic Fallacy respectably rejected as THE 4 DEADLY FALLACIES in favor, instead, of an hypothesis of reciprocal creative misunderstanding from fecund ambiguity.

'Insight into Bohm Dialogue' begins it's adventure into meaning and futility, from canny observation of common real life conversation and even what often passes for argument, in all of it's empty, cagey and insecure banalities safe from all the social dangers of candor, what it actually reveals and where it all breaks down and fails. 

 

But, not unlike Edward de Bono, instead of aspiring however to the emotional growth and to brush up on the Socratic Method and to welcome conflict only so long as such be important or meaningful controversy, they seemingly abandon hope for all deadlocked argument along with mere dreary small talk, the metaphorical baby out with the proverbial bathwater; embracing in it's stead, cornball Zen cliché, and worse, blithely flirting with Wittgensteinean paralysis. But, then, just such pompous silliness is also a telling part of real life conversation, and often most amusingly captured in fictional or fictionalized dialogue among typical schooled fools.

 

Bohmian Dialogue demystified

 

Bohmian Dialogue or Bohm Dialogue or, simply "dialogue" to it's adherents, seeks to provide an antidote to our Existential situation of real life drama, the destructive consequences of living in a monological world, a world in which downright unreasonable people talk without listening to each other or even to themselves.

Standard explanations of Bohmian Dialogue actually highlight the very problem confronted by Bohmian Dialogue to begin with, because just such standard explanations of Bohmian Dialogue that begin with the ego tend thereby to be confusing because the intended problem or implication of just such standard explanations of Bohmian Dialogue is not exactly Zen preoccupation with escape from self consciousness, but only and more specifically of self reflection and the ego as filter, of how preconception which provides context for intelligibility at all, is also often prone to error, or, more specifically, of misunderstanding and distortion, however gross or subtle.

All variance, in it's probabilistic approximation, which David Bohm actually compared, metaphorically, to quantum indeterminacy. Indeed, Bohmian Dialogue often initially requires uncomfortably long tolerance of awkward self-conscious ambiguity.

Indeed, even more precisely, the challenge undertaken by Bohmian Dialogue is to resolve the variance in meaning, shades of misunderstanding and common misapprehension in verbal communication between different people. And the technique is one of free association and added comment until a more complete shared meaning is achieved and reinforced.

 

Excellence in Miscommunication Competence and repair for extreme Conversational Adequacy is actually striven for in Bohmian Dialogue only by heroic effort to meet the impossibly high standards of Zen Epistemology for fidelity to oneness and totality of being, all via comprehensive holistic polysemy. And such impossible dependency upon veritable completeness of data sampled, smacks, rather, of Reductionism. -Still, just perhaps all better than utter capitulation to Wittgensteinean paralysis, one must suppose! 

Bohmian Dialogue, pressing the encounter group to an extreme, thus strives to circumvent the inadequacy of conceptualization as according to the Zen, specifically as applicable in the effort at dialogue, only by protracted and arduous efforts of reciprocal Zenning of one another.
 

For beyond all or any of the above, in Bohmian Dialogue the attempt is made at "radical honesty," lowering barriers even to the point of painstaking reflection upon self observation of intonation and bodily speech nuance, even like unto one's own onboard polygraph or voice stress analysis, in order thereby to expand polysemic meaning, all that which is signified, into every branch of the six core motivations and intentions for any dialogue, to unearth unconscious blithe assumption and thereby improve self awareness and candor as well as listening skills.

Hence, Bohmian Dialogue may eschew the advancing conflict metaphor on any level, of progressively consolidated persuasion even including mere rational argument, in order more candidly to relate to others by effective listening, attending upon subtext via better and more meticulous awareness and understanding of one's own emotional reactions provoking one's own subtle physical responses, word by word and step by step. Indeed, in Bohmian Dialogue anger, tension and conflict are to be welcomed, neither avoided or suppressed, but only for the opportunity of sociological observation thereof, not for resolution nor any other constructive purpose of adversarial process of controversy and Evolutionary Epistemology in the crucible of truth.

The problem remains, however, just as in the underhanded and dishonest abuse of brainstorming, that any suspension of argument is so easily co-opted into consensus manipulation by the concealment of controversy, even antirational rejection of reason and reality, exactly defeating every intended constructive and uplifting purpose of honesty, candor and the quest for truth even as via Bohmian Dialogue. Hence the enduring value of the Socratic Dialectic, however adversarial, and of disambiguation via Empiricism and truth which is correspondence to external reality regardless how often and unsportsmanlike impugned will be the motive of mere egotistical gratification derived from "scoring" good points. 

A. Subtext is so obvious, that's why we never even mention it.

In the end, it can't look like acting. "Writing on the nose"  is an old Hollywood pejorative expression denoting dialogue lacking the subtlety of subtext, unsubtle as a punch in the nose. After all, in real life, people rarely just come out and say what they really think. Therefore, motivated characters shouldn't either. Interesting dialogue is often oblique with tacit meaning. In real life, we often fail to express ourselves fully, and even choose our words somewhat poorly, with a sense of awkwardness and distance. In all that is spoken and unspoken, without being blatant, context comes to light in the way that people talk to others consistently with how they take measure and relate to whomever they are talking to, and revealing as to how they feel about that person and perhaps as well, whatever the topic of conversation. Because the dramatic efficacy of revealing and motivated subtext is in frustrated desire, giving rise to need and ingenuity.

Subtext most generally refers to the implicit meaning or theme, essential understanding or recurring concept often conveyed via some symbolic Objective Correlative motif or topos, of a literary work, the tone, underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script, text or dialogue, and interpreted by an actor in performance, or any coyly hidden, (understated or overstated!) or simply less obvious meaning, innuendo, implied deliberately, let slip accidentally, blithely assumed (as, for example, cultural attitudes, norms and outlook even as revealed without explicit statement in routine historical documents and paperwork), or otherwise unselfconsciously implicit, or even as emerging from subtexting or Literary (with the capital 'L') analysis, dissection and deconstruction, by interpretation in the partnership between the author and reader, unperceived sources working from the smart subconscious, even such as risking somewhat questionable free association and projection, actual creativity rather than wholly reliable deduction, perhaps occasionally far fetched. Layers of subtext and ambiguity are richer and thought provoking.

Layers of subtext and ambiguity render the experience thereof that much richer and more thought provoking. Of course, all such subtexting does also run the risk of somewhat questionable free association and projection, actual creativity rather than wholly reliable deduction, perhaps occasionally somewhat far fetched, no matter the various different Factors Affecting/Effecting the Reading of Texts. For, one way or another, art usually strives at communication. And The Problem of Meaning in Literature begins with the age old conundrum of layered text, context and subtext, of whether meaning is simply recognition of authorial intention, text content , or even created by the reader in response either thereof, each and all along with the Pathetic Fallacy respectably rejected as THE 4 DEADLY FALLACIES in favor, instead, of an hypothesis of reciprocal creative misunderstanding from fecund ambiguity.

• Listen Long: Principles for Effective Listening.
• Active Listening
• Representation of Consciousness,

Indeed, is bypassing, exchange which is not genuine communication because it lacks sufficient intersubjectivity and does not carry at all the same meanings or even purpose, intention or point at all between the participants, all there really is, as according to the Zen?

For as Eve Tushnet points out in Eros and Education, even so integral and elemental a vital impulse as sex is meaningful expression of Eros, more than the quest for completion and transformation, the oft frustrated desire for connection, liberating union with alien difference inevitably first demanding resolution at levels of conflict arising from any dread of the vulnerability entailed.

“People's level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively the case.”  - Albert Bandura

In drama, the conflict inherent to situation, there are four elements of thirteen possible motivations:

What do characters want, goals ever put forth, and why, what motivates them? And what aids or hinders whatever their quest? In dramatizing controversy, good motivated and dramatic dialogue makes it hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. "In a good play, everyone is right." But how far would they go? Or will they change and grow?

Just such levels of conflict even beneath the surface TEXT and CONTEXT may, nevertheless, emerge through subtext, as spoken and unspoken, What Lurks Beneath, shown by way of each of the senses in setting, action and atmospheric tone along with the Subtle and Delicate Art of Doublespeak dialogue, may either harmonize with text, or in true Method subtext, even disagree with text, subtly, so as to draw attention into a  deeper vein or level of conflict by being subtly wrong, key to show or evoke characterization, wherein motivation should be apparent, even through thoughts, however expository.

So, navigate the various possible paths and dead ends and to find stories always dig deeper for insight into difficult struggle.

subtext:

written and spoken • theatrical • sitcom • evocative radio

• The Wonderful World of Subtext
• subtexting

• poetry

• Zen context and conversation

"The world is his, who can see through it's pretension." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Q. What is sex appeal? 

-Or, Was it Good for You Too? 

A dirty mind is a joy forever.

—Oscar Wilde

 

   A. Click HERE! You know you want to! 

Because: yes, of course, subtext often refers to submerged sexuality and innuendo.

 

Discover why sex really is quite possibly the most important thing!

A. Plot must intertwine three principle threads, any or all unfolding and in doubt, of revelation, the outcome of suspenseful drama, the many levels of conflict inherent to situation, action, excitement, spectacle, the whys and wherefores of character growth and pathos, but all together with the meaning of some memorable theme.

Drama requires characters each with whatever their own motivating stake in the issues, decisions, dire yet at all free choices to make and the looming consequences thereof. And, to build tension and maintain interest and exploit every Technique of Suspense plotting, all attempts to back out must deteriorate and fail, but without such glaring plot holes as blithely overlooked or ignored obvious opportunities.

People understand and relate to plot logic, the linear causality of stories, even though events in the real world unfold as the confluence of all manner of even dharmic and karmic cofactors in the outcomes of complex systems, perhaps even amenable to some common theme, similarity or generality, if not any other serviceable narrative.

-Theme being whatever central question or inquiry, must correlate with some dramatic issue that must be compelling, credible and untenable conflict of values escalating naturally through increasingly high-stakes of any problematic situation.

Many a classic theme is reducible to proverb.

Character and setting INTERACTIONS include the Phenomena of POV, Point Of View,  situation of Epistemological "Given Circumstances" of information ever available to any given character, plus filtered perceptions superficial or deep Viewpoint with ambiguity and often value loaded abstraction out of memory association and personal constructs of social cognition built from successive red herrings, innate naturally flawed Epistemological Methodology and elements of narrative even including Pathetic Fallacy, all redolent in theme, perhaps even sublimely hinted at by isotopy.

To be relationally bullied, manipulated, confused, invalidated, isolated from connection, and robbed of ones voice, is estrangement from the world, classic reversal crushing unto despair. Whereas an author finding ones own voice, even identity and POV, Point Of View, beyond tone, syntax and structure alone, that is the moment, finally, of the lucid and vivid articulation of theme, gaining momentum and central clarity from whence all else unfolds smoothly and powerfully.

The insight gained, the understanding essential to the theme, essential understanding or recurring concept often conveyed via some symbolic Objective Correlative motif or topos, similarity or affinity, larger philosophical problem or Existential dilemma, is whatever unifying idea that is a recurrent element, the thought-provoking pivotal idea filtering through, what matters deeply, the foremost penetrating integrative principle or dominant question or exploration -perhaps of the querant, the central unifying element of the story which ties together all of the other elements in a literary or artistic work, driving the story, or more properly a general hypothesis in answer to or larger philosophical problem or Existential dilemma that is actually the theme, exploration or question, however well or poorly stated.

In rhetorical plot logic, theme is knowledge-driven Epistemology.

Retrospective elements are those which incorporate previous events into the action. But a story that returns again and again to theme but heavy handedly, and even with little or no regard for plot logic, is ponderous and trite. Nevertheless, fiction that finds no controlling idea or theme probably isn't very good, either. Indeed, generic hack, in it's banality, may not bother to develop serious themes at all. For a story to best serve as vehicle for whatever vital core content, to build a story around a theme, stage only those events which advance or illustrate said theme.

• What was it that was trying to be said through whichever work of narrative in question?
• Was it said? 
• Was it well said?
• Was it worth saying?

A story's setting, action, characterization with POV, and use of imagery can all be used to bring forward whatever theme(s), essential understanding or recurring concept, often conveyed via some symbolic Objective Correlative motif or topos. Theme should come through to emerge in the readers consciousness, without blatant exposition thereof.

                Theme in Literary Fiction

             Standard dramatic themes  

             Many a classic theme is reducible to proverb.

             Who Controls the Media and their Meanings?

A story premise, however, is either conventional initial causation or else more Teleologically akin to Aristotelian final cause or intentional purposeful outcome: Either what if? or so what? Creative provocation in quest of either problems and opportunities to motivate plot or else plot as however polemically contrived to support an intended implicit assertion, point, message or even a moral to the story.

Storycraft: IDEAS into PLOT as in Science Fiction, is concerned with putting imagination and premise, extrapolation and problem solving, into the practice of plot development.

Indeed, there are different basic types of premise. As in Science Fiction, the premise may be speculative, even scientific conjecture, whatever point of departure, both chronological and conjectural, raising questions of whatever ramifications or consequences. The premise may be how the plot turns upon any of the thirteen plot motivators or whatever inciting incident in Act One at or shortly after the opening, or even in the teaser, particularly as in high concept, or at some prior time frame or occasion, in "Act Zero."

The "mini-crisis" is the setup at the beginning of the story  in which the dilemma is established, comes to pass or is discovered by the protagonist or just the audience, if it turns out the protagonist knows all along. Also the characters' reactions thereto.  

And it was James Blish who suggested that the best way to derive plot from premise begins by determining: who gets hurt? -as a consequence of whichever sort of premise, creating all important conflict on many levels, pathos, tension, Technique of Suspense plotting, anticipation or doubt, even discomfort and aversion. Indeed, to that end, a good story may also incorporate an opposing or contradictory Counter Premise or Antithesis. For better and more dramatic and engaging conflict on many levels in fiction, even diametrically opposing views and tendencies, indeed if not represented in the agenda of an antagonist or villain outright, may even be embodied by the foil and related character for story to effectively frame or stage any sort of more engaging debate, than just a one sided lecture or or object lesson with no tension, suspense, or doubt to resolve. After all, In drama, the conflict on many levels inherent to situation, there are four elements of motivation:

What do characters want, goals ever put forth, and why, what motivates them? And what aids or hinders whatever their quest? In dramatizing controversy, good motivated and dramatic dialogue makes it hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. "In a good play, everyone is right." But how far would they go? Or will they change and grow?

“People's level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively the case.”  - Albert Bandura

Q. What is meant by thematic premise?

A. If denotation of the word premise will be restricted to the literal sense of initial hypothesis defining whatever aspect of initial situation, inciting incident and back-story, or circumstances and plot points, and usage of the word theme is likewise fully dilated to mean the scope of subject and exploration in narrative works, essential understanding or recurring concept, often conveyed via some symbolic Objective Correlative motif or topos, then by intent, the hybrid term thematic premise has entered usage to signify any implicit broader dramatic concept, but less specifically, as regarding concrete initial situation or circumstances, than any broad systematic or Philosophical assertion or observation addressing some broader underlying karma, all the indefinable and classifications of plot logic and causality, ever best achieving "unity of action," Sequence and Logic, and human nature or values and morality, though perhaps nevertheless broader and more sophisticated than any pat cautionary.

In brief, then, thematic premise has come to denote specifically, any initial premise of situation (as opposed to premise in the sense of argumentative point or conclusion, telos, ultimate end or final cause), that remains, nevertheless, at all thematic, exploring any problem or articulating some insight.

  Overview / brainstorming.

•  The FICTION BRAINSTORMING Toolkit

Q. What are The Fundamentals of Fiction Writing ?

A. Click the links to return to the the fundamentals of fiction writing, from conflict to drama and plot, then:

Motivated characterization

Q. What is the speculative element crucial and unique defining Science Fiction that may even challenge or even violate, outright, so many of the writing values, maxims and priorities traditionally central fiction writing?

A.  

Q. Is there any recommended linked resource offering pointers on good Science Fiction writing technique?  

Q. What are the different options and their pitfalls, in various approaches to fiction writing and collaboration?  And what better alternatives are there?

A. Here is an Overview as to why, quite frankly, we'd all be best off brainstorming.

A. There is nothing wrong with 'Star Trek' except bad writing, and seldom ever anything right with 'Star Trek' that does not begin with good writing. Same as with anything else... 

Q. But what if I ever hope to be published?

A. Obviously, fanfic is in all likelihood, inherently unpublishable, given whatever issues of prior intellectual property. Because the publication of fanfic is only ever tolerated in whatever limited exposure and amateur context.

Q. What distinguishes the ‘Star Trek: The Ship of Fools’ format in particular, from other 'Star Trek' series, in any Media, fanfic included? 

A. An effort has been made to gloss over that which is merely perfunctory and boring, and to see that nothing has been included unless it is interesting or dramatic. To provide new and colorful motivated and even unique and original well rounded and multifaceted characters, and to speculatively advance the ramifications, or at least take over the top rather than simply rehash or further trivialize, the most appealing 'Star Trek' tropes. 

And that  ‘Star Trek: The Ship of Fools’ outlines and drafts are truly unfinished, with much to be added and even need for changes, also points of creative departure, and thus every challenge and delight remaining for authors, in collaboration, to share with readers. 

Not just anal formulaic filling in of the blanks with the obvious simply for the sake of completion! Indeed the series can be revised completely, and take any direction, even radical change of format, if such will be the more compelling.  

Beginning with the outline for introductory six part mini-series also serving as series "bible" for ‘Star Trek: The Ship of Fools’. 

Q. Why the title? 

A. The Ship of Fools, sacred fools, is a classical allegory of the human condition, blind and impulsive in hopes of salvation. And ‘Star Trek: The Ship of Fools’ is a tale of encounter with the unknown from Rashuman-like multiple perspective, and corresponding dramatic conflict on many levels from clashing motivation. 

Hieronymus Bosch • Annotated • schooled fools • yellowdog

 

 

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