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Spatial Storytelling
Submitted by thenewblack on 28 October 2006 - 5:40pm.
In the Jenkins essay included in "First Person," he argues that games represent "spatial stories" which he likens to the mode of storytelling found in genre fiction, notably fantasy and science fiction. Writing about these examples, Jenkins says, "Often such works exist on the outer borders of literature." This is correct to be sure, but I would say that spatial storytelling has more of a place in"great literature" than Jenkins gives it credit for. What is a picaresque novel if not an example of spatial storytelling?" The focus is not on the inner state of the character, but rather on the various environments and situations that the character wanders into.
An example that comes to mind for me is Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby." Nicholas is not a particularly dynamic character. In fact he's rather dull, and that doesn't change much over the course of the novel. The novel's interest or excitement is derived from the situations that Nicholas has to deal with, and the characters that he interacts with. I think it might not be too much of a stretch to say that the novel has a vaguely (emphasis on vaguely) gamelike character. There is an overarching goal driving Nicholas, to find some satisfactory position and provide for his family, and he tries his hand at various scenarios with that goal in mind. In the end, having worked himself through many different situations, he "wins" by doing well with the Cheeryble brothers. I get a sense reading the novel that the various scenarios are "tests" of a kind. In any case, the novel's focus is not internal, but rather on a relatively fixed character's interaction with his environment. Maybe I'm stretching a bit too far, but the idea's been nagging at me for awhile and I wanted to get it out there.
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ludology, picaresque, visual poetry
I'm curious as to how the picaresque is spatial -- I'm not saying that it's not, just wondering in what sense it might be considered so.
Trying to work this out, I consider these:
The script itself doesn't do anything special visually, so that's not what you mean.
The story progresses more or less chronologically, so that's not it either, right?
Do you mean that spatial or external aspects of the characters' worlds are presented?
Or do you mean that the episodic nature of events resembles a spatial exploration in which time is de-emphasized as opposed to a more tightly causative plot progression, in which time might tend to be foregrounded?
I'd say that the last two
I'd say that the last two possibilities that you present capture most of what I was going for. I do want to emphasize that my sense of the picaresque and narratives such as Nickleby is that the author focuses on what surrounds the character, and that the spatial character of these narratives is mainly derived from that. I'm not sure if it is time that is de-emphasized so much as it is that internal exploration gives way to external exploration. It often seems in these narratives that the main character's role is to connect the various spaces and episodes that unfold, kind of like an avatar in a way.