© 1998 The Adelphiasophists and AskWhy! Publications. Freely distribute as long as it is unaltered and properly attributed
Contents Updated: Saturday, 9 August 2008

The Marienbad Muser Story Teller

As we have already said in connexion with PoltiPlot, if a computer could write you a story, then you as a storyteller are redundant. These pages are to stimulate your thinking, and help you overcome writer’s block. The plot outliner simply juxtaposes, not in any logical way, some Polti categories to give you ideas for plots. By merging with the Marienbad simulation, the musings of the Polti plot muser bring a degree more unity into the schema which emerges, but not much. It simply helps to remind us or convince ourselves that the attempt is to suggest one story, not several. The logic of your own story is your’s, but an exercise in creativity is to take one of these pages, and to force yourself to make a story, using the elements suggested, it being your choice, of course, what you consider the primary plot and what the subplots.

Can I explain? …Ah, now I am beginning to remember. The hero has some human weakness, like childish simplicity, any strong emotion, gluttony, and consequently causes a loss, sometimes despite the appeals of a counsellor who cautions against the imprudent act, which is sometimes instigated by a selfish prompter—who could be made central. The instigator is motivated by simple self interest. You must recollect being on the terrace as the clock struck midnight. You were dressed to travel. You had said midnight, to have chance to talk to him. I appeared on time just as the clock struck twelve. You rose. As we left, he appeared in the deserted salon looking troubled and then went to the main salon. Or was it quite different? It might have been. I'm not sure. Do you know? Is it a charade, a tableaux or series of tableaux? Are the players merely the dead come to life? People seem strangely unemotional as if not fully human. A father and son, one of whom is dishonest, seek a love object, often an illicit love, such as the rival’s wife or husband, when, usually, the hero is preferred. The love object varies the plot with their indecision. What distinguishes the rivals? Is their desire simply for the same thing? What distinguishes the rivals might be serious, a current adultery, or some minor thing which assumes importance, perhaps showing the difference in motivation, such as the love object is inferior to both, one is loved but the other has no right to love, and so on.

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• Last Year In Marienbad Never ending story. Keep refreshing or clicking the button to find out what happens year after year at Marienbad!
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