Interactive Visualizations of Plot in Fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we expand on our presentation at ICDS2010 (Dobson et al., 2010) in describing the design of several new forms of interactive visualization intended for teaching the concept of plot in fiction. The most common visualization currently used for teaching plot is a static diagram known as Pyramid, which was initially intended for describing classical and Shakespearean tragedy. It has subsequently been applied to a wider range of fiction, but is not always applicable. The alternative interactive forms that we propose allow a more dynamic approach that can be customized by the teachers and students to accommodate various interpretations of a single piece of fiction. We provide a mechanism for people to select significant features of a story, such as characters, objects, events and transitions in time or space, and see how the different models react to the presence of these features. Our designs include one that is primarily sequential, another that emphasizes the structural complexity of the story and a third that places a single feature as a central focus. The data for this visualization is provided through an XML encoding of the significant features of a given story. INTRODUCTION In this paper, we investigate the possibility for 3D visualizations related to the notion of plot in fiction. In teaching narrative forms, teachers, particularly in North American K-12 classrooms and to a lesser extent in undergraduate university programs, have relied on the five-stage plot mapping first described by Gustav Freytag (1863) in Die Technik des Dramas. This mapping, developed in consideration of ancient Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, has widely become known as Freytag's Pyramid figure 1). However, since many plots follow other patterns, the superimposition of this model on forms beyond those it was originally intended to describe is often confusing and at worst can be downright misleading (Dobson, 2002). Kurt Vonnegut Jr. famously attempted to address this problem with the plot diagrams figure 2) he proposed for his MA thesis, which were concerned with changes in the fortune of the protagonist over time, and which are published in Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut, 1973). Although simple to read and deeply revealing in nature, like much of Vonnegut's own writing, the diagrams are limited in scope by their reliance on the Cartesian graph. As Van Peer and Chatman (2001) observe, the diverse narratives of the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries (p. 5) are incompatible with contemporary narrative models because most of these models reflect a Western perspective. Further, as Dobson (2006) has noted, they do not take account of new media genres. Considering the latter, some, such as Bernstein (1998), have proposed twodimensional plot patterns that account for various narrative forms emerging in digital media. Others, such as MIT's Drew Davidson (2005·), have been exploring diagrammatic representations of plot in video games, demonstrating that the Freytag schema is inappropriate to the new context. The problem of how best to visualize plot, though, was identified as a challenge long before Freytag or Vonnegut. Sterne's Tristram Shandy, published in nine over ten years commencing in 1759, is often cited as an example of complex narrative structure- a precursor of later experimental forms in print and a harbinger of hypertext (e.g., Bolter, 2001). The novel is replete with digressions and temporal disruptions to which Sterne takes pains to alert readers. In volume VI, for example, he draws a series of five plot figures 3 and 4). The first four graphs, he explains, represent the lines I moved in through my first, second, third, and fourth volumes (Sterne, 1847, 287). He offers the following explanation for his final graph (figure 4): ... except at the curve marked A, where I took a trip to Navarre, and the indented curve B, which is the short airing when I was there with the Lady Baussiere and her page, I have not taken the least frisk of a digression, till John de la Casses devils led me the round you see marked D; for as for CC CCC they are nothing but parentheses, and the common ins and outs incident to the lives of the greatest ministers of state (287). …