Sunday, April 3, 2011

Appeal and Dis-appeal

For store bought items, the majority the product’s appeal, addressed by the buyer, is enveloped in both the aesthetics of the packaging as well as prior knowledge fueled by the opinion by others; for example, customer reviews. When it comes to narratives, it is safe to say, the template for appeal or lack of appeal is similar. In general, the brand of a certain item is a parallel to the source of the narrative (ie. Youtube, CNN) and the demand for the product is parallel to the narrative’s tellability as they’re both the source of appeal. As a core element for a successful narrative, there needs to be a foundation as well as “continuity”, according to Bertram Bruce in “What Makes a Good Story?” [1] This is appeal at its simplest form – a structure with an understandable flow of material.

According to Marie-Laure Ryan and Luc Herman, “… ‘Events are tellable if they are unusual, problematic or scandalous’ with reference to the actual world.’ ” [2] However, what may be unusual or scandalous to one may not be for another and the phrase of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is personified. The broad range of reactions by different people is certainly unavoidable; this is where opinion and subjectivity starts to play a role and by this, the fine line between the narratable and unnaratable begins to fade. Considering there is no single source to identify flaws which would deem the work unappealing, it makes it easy to state that everything in a sense is narratable; it’s the judgment of individuals that defines the unnarratable leaving no solid term which can envelop the idea as a whole.



[1] Herman, Luc/ Vervaeck, Bart. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. Vol. 17. The Ohio State Universtiy, 2009. Print. p 116.

[2] Herman, Luc/ Vervaeck, Bart. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. Vol. 17. The Ohio State Universtiy, 2009. Print. p 113.

No comments:

Post a Comment