Skip to content

A city is not a tree and WOARO

David Gane
David Gane
— 1 min read

I really was interested in this post from Austin Kleon for two reasons.

The first is about Joseph Meeker's The Comedy of Survival, which I haven't read, but I'm interested by the premise which suggests that "the destructive aspects of western civilization are founded on the tragic mode, while the comic mode offers a path for redemption."

I am always interested in exploring different approaches to narrative and always hoping that I'll someday find a different approach to WOARO. The notion of abandoning the tragic mode for the comic mode is intriguing, something I'd like to explore further.

The second part of Kleon's that caught my attention was this image:

Taken from Austin Kleon's post: The Comedy of Survival
Taken from Austin Kleon's post: The Comedy of Survival

This looks very familiar to this idea that a city is not a tree, which I posted about in DDJ Nov 18, 2020.

A natural city is a semi-lattice. An artificial city is designed like a tree.
Image from "A City is not a Tree." Written in 1964 by mathematician/architect Christopher Alexander (CA).
Image from "A City is not a Tree." Written in 1964 by mathematician/architect Christopher Alexander (CA).

Up until now, I have always organized my thoughts about story around classical structures, with each act stand by itself. To me it has often looked like the tree structure on the right. But more and more, I am interested in the semi-lattice structure, where the pieces spill and build over each other. I'm not sure if this would happen through a traditional approach to the text or if it is using hypertext, but I am intrigued to find out.

Blog
David Gane

David Gane Twitter

Co-writer of the Shepherd and Wolfe young adult mysteries, the internationally award-winning series, and teacher of storytelling and screenwriting.

Comments

Related Posts

Happiness and pain

When asked what they want, people often say they want happiness or pleasure. However, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman argues that people are loss-averse, meaning they are more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve a gain. This finding means we are more likely to

Fast Fiction

Before writing the daily blog, I had been experimenting with fast fiction—fiction that was written and shared quickly. The first time was during the summer of 2021 when I wrote a new story every day for 31 days. I then tried to do it once a week for a

Mistakes happen

Yesterday's newsletter didn't go to the right group, so I had to resend it tonight. It may even come out after I'm finished with this blog post. I finished it early yesterday, did several edits, then had my wife read it before I sent it. Yet, it still failed—but