So you think you know what (a) narrative is? That klusterflop of a sentence is precisely the reason for this blog post.

After Seth’s lecture on non-narrative and the way in which non-narratives are organised and interpreted, I have come to the conclusion that there are essentially three distinctly different ways people actually understand narrative to be. And my theory is that this completely comes down to your own personal philosophical understanding of the universe (more later).

Philosophical Idea Numero Uno: The Narrative as Plot Understanding

The first way in which people understand Narrative is just straight up anything with a story, at all. I will give you an example of what this sounds like… “Oh did you watch Captain America (you know, the second one) in the cinema?” she inquired, “Yes Debra!” Phillis replied, “It was just completely devoid of narrative substance.” “What a shame,” Debra said, “I kind of hoped you were one of those people who’s really hip and cool and can be entertained by the artistry of a 50 minute continuous zoom in.”

Here, our characters Debra and Phillis are having a conversation about Plot, or potentially, Story, and people kind of turned that idea into story. I know in Year 12, I had this kind of understanding, if you’re studying the narrative of something you’re studying it’s story. If you have a book and it’s a narrative, it’s a story, even if it doesn’t have a narrator. “But all books have a narrator!” I hear you cry… yes okay Debra, I’m getting to that.

Philosophical Idea Numero Duo: The Narrative is the collection of things Understanding

This is a really good one if you’re one of the people in the world that has a compulsive need to taxonomize everything. So here you go, narrative is when a thing presents you anything. Narrative is the way in which information is communicated, narrated. In a film, this is when the Director is trying to show you that life is transient so he slaps in 14 consecutive shots of dying flowers. That’s some narrative right there. BOOM! The idea that life is transient has now been narrated to you through the narrative, there’s a narrative, there you go, TADAAAAA!

But wait! Then this blog is a narrative, I am presenting this information to you, trying to get you to think, so then what is non-narrative. How could anything be Non-narrative?!?!

Existential crisis here we come.

Philosophical Idea Numero Tre: The Narrative is all a lie Understanding

“So Debra,” Phillis said, “What is narrative substance?” She thought long and hard. She looked at the ceiling for an answer, then back to the deep purple curtains, she imagined running her fingers along all the cracks in the walls and noted that they, in a sort of subtle, yet beautiful way, represented her flawed understanding of narrative. Composing herself, she stated, “The hero’s journey”. “Codswallop!” shouted Phillis, “You know as well as I do that narrative is just a farce and that the hero’s journey is just trodden tripe screamed from the rooftops of buildings in Burbank”

Here lies the third Philosophical understanding, that narrative is in fact a lie. The acceptance that everything is narrative and therefore, nothing is. Since all art is narrating something, even if it’s a drunk man in a room spitting paint on a canvas, there is a acceptance that narrative is just nothing and everything all wrapped into one, impossible to categorise, impossible to understand, as diverse as the universe itself, impossible to understand and define.

At what point does anything become a narrative? Who decides? No One? Everyone? Beyond all the academic definitions… What actually is a narrative? Is it something that can have an ‘a’ in front of it at all? Is it a singular thing or a constantly evolving force that cannot be stopped no matter how many Debras the world may have?