Rhizomatic Fiction
A fictional world is constructed/imagined as a reflection or expression upon reality as we know it. Cognitive relations involve internal realism/external realism. Internal realism in fiction is reliant on consistency within a setting very different from our own experience. For example, fiction may involve alien abductions, or the modus operandi of space ship propolsion methods.
External realism in the above example may be depicted in natural human response to abduction, and ability to understand or appreciate alien technology.
Rhizomatic text offers the writer a fluid canvas to work with. Nevertheless, a realistic scenario requires cohesion between rhizomatic and arbolic structure. These structures are comparable to polarities in society, such as anarchic and heirarchial, or nomadic and sedintary approaches. These concepts may not work fully hand in glove, but there is no doubt they are both manifest in our present plane of understanding.
The polarity between value and meaning mimic arbolic and rhizomatic texts. Value is often perceived in objects and meaning through reflection. For example, the value we attribute to a romantic liaison may bear little resemblance we ascribe in retrospect.
Value is generally fixed, fairly immutable, and determined by cultural significations invisible to the subject. This can still be amendable in harmony with a thriving subject unconstrained by those fixed systems. In other words, the symbiocratic and centralized, or meaning-laden and value based, can be harmonized in the creation of a fictional world.
Many books are well written even without the knowledge of present day theoretical practices. An author has free rein to become psychoanalyst, philosopher, humorist, semiotic master, and creator of fantastic and believable scenarios. Example is better than precept, and action speaks louder than words.
As a ten year old, my class and I were given a forty word spelling test to complete. I surprised myself, in the dawning of semiotic awareness, by drawing small pictures representing each word, instead of actually spelling the words. Fortunately the teacher was more pleased than angry, instilling in me the foundations for rhizomatic structure.
A strength, and conversely the problem with hypertext rhizomatic methods, is the speed of transmission in the digital age. This encourages copying, mimicking, impersonating, and plagiarism. The same system that encourages the cutting edge is the one providing freedoms to spy on and monitor those who may prefer anonymity. It also provides a shifting landscape for those in search of fast money through deceptive means.
In any case, root structure and horticulture are limited in describing written text. As any competent gardener knows, with the exception of tap-rooted plants, all perennials which form clumps and roots, shoots, and foliage, can be repeatedly divided. Even arbolic plants provide exceptions to the rule. There are banyan trees many hundreds of meters wide with trunks formed from rooting branches. It is impossible to discern the original trunk amongst the others.
Maybe our whole concept is upside down. I gazed at a tree reflected in a clear lake on a still day. From where I was standing I could have sworn the roots were on top and the leaves at bottom.
End
External realism in the above example may be depicted in natural human response to abduction, and ability to understand or appreciate alien technology.
Rhizomatic text offers the writer a fluid canvas to work with. Nevertheless, a realistic scenario requires cohesion between rhizomatic and arbolic structure. These structures are comparable to polarities in society, such as anarchic and heirarchial, or nomadic and sedintary approaches. These concepts may not work fully hand in glove, but there is no doubt they are both manifest in our present plane of understanding.
The polarity between value and meaning mimic arbolic and rhizomatic texts. Value is often perceived in objects and meaning through reflection. For example, the value we attribute to a romantic liaison may bear little resemblance we ascribe in retrospect.
Value is generally fixed, fairly immutable, and determined by cultural significations invisible to the subject. This can still be amendable in harmony with a thriving subject unconstrained by those fixed systems. In other words, the symbiocratic and centralized, or meaning-laden and value based, can be harmonized in the creation of a fictional world.
Many books are well written even without the knowledge of present day theoretical practices. An author has free rein to become psychoanalyst, philosopher, humorist, semiotic master, and creator of fantastic and believable scenarios. Example is better than precept, and action speaks louder than words.
As a ten year old, my class and I were given a forty word spelling test to complete. I surprised myself, in the dawning of semiotic awareness, by drawing small pictures representing each word, instead of actually spelling the words. Fortunately the teacher was more pleased than angry, instilling in me the foundations for rhizomatic structure.
A strength, and conversely the problem with hypertext rhizomatic methods, is the speed of transmission in the digital age. This encourages copying, mimicking, impersonating, and plagiarism. The same system that encourages the cutting edge is the one providing freedoms to spy on and monitor those who may prefer anonymity. It also provides a shifting landscape for those in search of fast money through deceptive means.
In any case, root structure and horticulture are limited in describing written text. As any competent gardener knows, with the exception of tap-rooted plants, all perennials which form clumps and roots, shoots, and foliage, can be repeatedly divided. Even arbolic plants provide exceptions to the rule. There are banyan trees many hundreds of meters wide with trunks formed from rooting branches. It is impossible to discern the original trunk amongst the others.
Maybe our whole concept is upside down. I gazed at a tree reflected in a clear lake on a still day. From where I was standing I could have sworn the roots were on top and the leaves at bottom.
End