Third Person Narrative

Well after a couple of weeks off air (becuase some bastard broke into my home and stole all of my computing equiptment  !!!!***!!! - personal rant over) I am back online blogging about my exploration of the world of transmedial narrative.

Acting on the advise of my tutor colin Harvey I have recently purchased  a copy of Third Person Authoring and Explioring Vast Narratives and as I move through the book over the next few weeks I will be blogging about its content and any impact that it has about my tyhinking as regards my own project "The SEER".

The Introduction drafted by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrio-Fruin, attempts to give you an overview of the book introducing you to some of the basic concepts which underline much of the writing and some of reasoning behind the structure of the book ( a serious of essays about Vast Narratives from across the spectrum - accdemic to hollywood prodcuers, and everywhere in between.

One of the early ideas about transmedial/cross medial works that is raised in this text is the concept of a CANONICAL text - ie. the idea that amongst the range of text and media within  which the story resides there is one text from which all others are said to sprout. - so in Harry Potter it is the books that are considered the CANONICAL text - within narrative Universes such as star wars there is not said to be a CANONICAL text but more sections of a vast fictional quilt. I feel with the SEER that I am attemting to create something that has more the feel of a fictional qulit than one based on a single canonical text.

What immediatley struck me was this concept of the vast narrative , stretching across a range of different media, or even contained within a single media form, and the impact that it has upon both the creative and potential consumer. Although at this stage the authors are not really attempting to define the vast narrative what they do is by pointing to works such as tolkin's Lord of the rings or James Joyce's Ulyssess make it clear that the vast narrative is not simply the domain of the digital age but has been around in one form or another for many years.

I am also stuck by the feeling that in my attempts to push the SEER into the world of the transmedial narrative I have stumbled into the VAST narrative and now face the same issues of maintaining structure and narrative consitancy throughout a large number of different stories and media types!