THE PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE: MULTI-LINEAR STORIES IN ORAL EPIC AND VIDEO ...

248 Pages·2013·1.2 MB·English

THE PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE: MULTI-LINEAR STORIES IN ORAL
EPIC AND VIDEO GAMES

by

Emily Joy Bembeneck

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Classical Studies)
in The University of Michigan
2013

Doctoral Committee:
Professor Ruth S. Scodel, Chair
Associate Professor Gordon Calleja, University of Malta
Associate Professor Basil J. Dufallo
Associate Professor J. Mira Seo, Yale-NUS
© Emily Joy Bembeneck 2013
DEDICATION

For Vanessa

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe my utmost gratitude and respect to my chair, Ruth Scodel, who has continually
challenged and encouraged me to pursue my ideas and interests. Even in my least lucid
moments, she found meaning in the possibilities of my studies and was a constant presence of
stability throughout my graduate career. Without Mira Seo, the writing you read within these
pages would be far from comprehensible and the ideas within it too muddled to understand. Her
help and advice has been invaluable. I am so grateful to Basil Dufallo who has always prompted
me to be doubly sure of my decisions. He has taught me to only follow those goals and ideas that
I believe are truly profitable for study, regardless of the traditional expectations and fears I may
encounter. With the help of Gordon Calleja's encouragement and feedback, I have been able to
more easily bridge the gap between the fields of Classics and Game Studies to, I hope, the
benefit of all my readers. His ideas on storytelling and narrative within games have vastly
influenced my own understanding of the player's narrative experience and are a constant source
of inspiration. I am blessed to have had David Potter as a mentor throughout my higher
education. He has been a scholarly role model and an example of what true brilliance in the field
looks like. For constant encouragement and faith, I am so grateful to Barbara Coulter, my piano
instructor. She had a vast influence on my own self-confidence and continually inspired me to
push myself further and open my mind to new possibilities.
To those who have remained with me in this long journey, I wish especially to thank Matt
Cohn, without whose friendship I would be entirely destitute. Although I have said it many
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times, truly I would do anything for that man. To my dear friend Brianne Hawes, without whose
emotional support in my lowest times I would never have survived. Let us never forget Gabii and
all the lessons learned there. To Matt Newman, who knows my secrets and keeps them safe. To
Matthew Mirse, who has truly been a Saint and heard more confessions than I think any human
deserves. To my children, who have made this experience even more meaningful, and who have
colored the days of drudgery with laughter and joy. To my cats, who hold the keys to my sanity
in their adorable paws. To all my colleagues and friends, in both real and virtual space, who have
touched me in ways they will never know, but without whom I would be some other possible me.
And of course, to all the myths and storytellers, the games and game creators, who have
fashioned in me this love of stories that challenge ideas of linearity and offer us possibilities
much grander than we could ever hope to fully explore.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii

INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER
1. Multi-Linear Theory 13
Defining Narrative 13
Possible-Worlds Theory 19
The Story Universe and Its Subordinates 24
The Story Toolbox 31
Construction of Multi-Linear Narrative 35
Defining Games 39
An Introductory Case Study: Dragon Age: Origins 41
An Introductory Case Study: The Embassy of Iliad, Book 9 48
Rules of Multi-Linear Systems 52
2. The Story Toolbox 59
Settings and Locations 59
The City: Civic Setting as Multi-Linear Template in the Iliad 62
The City in Games 68
Settings and Locations as Narrative Sequence 72
Characters 78
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Possibilities of Character Biography 79
A Character-Template Scene in Dragon Age: Origins 85
Characters and Upward Mobility 89
Scenes 92
Homeric Scenes - A New Understanding of the Motif 93
The Homeric Scene 95
Scenes in Video Games: Quests 98
3. Rules and Narrative 107
Rules and the Boundary of Text 109
Rules of Plot 111
Plot and the fabula 114
The Multi-linear fabula 116
Negotiating Rules of Plot 123
Rules of Physics 127
Physics in Fictional Worlds 127
Physics in Games 132
Metaphysics of Player Death 135
Negotiating the Rules of Physics 137
The Physics of the Gods 138
A Continuum of Genre 140
The Continuum in Games 142
Rules of Truth: Quantum Stories 145
Rules of Discourse 150
Rules of Discourse in Oral Epic 151
Rules of Discourse in Games 154
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Achievements as Discourse 157
Discourse Literacy 160
4. Co-Authorship 164
Developing a Story World 165
Proliferation in Action 166
A Case Study: the Warcraft Universe 168
Troy as a Proliferating Story World: Troilus 172
Choice and Agency: Meaningful Illusions 175
Choosing a Narrative Path 177
Dragon Age Choice: the Arl's Son 177
Choice in Facade 180
Achilles' Choice 182
Medea's Choice 185
5. Post-Primary Reception and Hermeneutics 189
The Hermeneutic Spiral 190
Emergence in Narrative Systems 194
Emergence in The Sims 196
Emergence in Troy 200
The (Un-)Changing Text 206
Revealing a Dragon Age 207
A (Post-)Primary Troy 211
CONCLUSION 217

BIBLIOGRAPHY 220

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INTRODUCTION

The last century has seen dramatic developments in the study and understanding of
narrative. From the early days of the Russian Formalists' work on narratology to the
structuralism of Genette, both of which focused primarily on the novel, more modern definitions
of narrative by Ryan and Fludernik now attempt to account for the narrative forms found in non-
print media.1 These theories however are primarily focused on linear narratives. These are the
narratives familiar to us from the modern novel and our own experience; their story flows from
one point in time to another, with all story events connected causally along this one linear
timeline. The narratives we tell of stories we have heard, the happenings of our day, and the
events of history typically fall into this form. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end,
always in that order. Although the presentation of such a story may adjust the order with which
we meet these three parts, whether through the use of flashbacks or other narrative tools, the
logical order of the story's events always follows this tripartite configuration.2
Some narratives are more complex than this, however. In oral epic, particularly the
Homeric poems, narrative is multi-linear. Instead of having one strict timeline of events, there
are variable possibilities of timelines. We also find this kind of narrative structure in many video
games, especially those which offer players choice and interaction within the game’s story. The
many possibilities of narrative expression within such a story system will be the subject of this
study.

1 Genette 1980; Ryan 1991; Fludernik 2009. See Chapter 1 for fuller theoretical discussion.
2 One may recall the elementary school exercises in which students are asked to label a series of pictures with the
correct order in which they must have logically happened. In narrative theory, this logical order of events is called
the fabula. We will discuss it more in Chapters 1 and 3.
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Understanding the commonalities of these two forms of storytelling in particular can help
us better understand each. For Homeric studies, an understanding of multi-linear theory as
applied to video games can uncover new methods of analyzing narratives, but also of
understanding the practice of composition and the effects of reception and audience negotiation.
On the side of game studies, an understanding of how multi-linear theory applies to the Homeric
poems can provide an alternative perspective that allows scholars to consider games as examples
in the evolution of multi-linear storytelling. As is commonly noted, games offer us a different
form of narrative than those commonly found in novels or film, yet with an understanding of
multi-linear theory as applied to the Homeric poems, we can see that video games are not
entirely different from all former narrative forms. In addition, a theory of narrative in video
games is still lacking in the field of game studies. Although numerous attempts at creating such a
theory have surfaced over the last decade, my offering of multi-linear theory is a new answer to
the question of how narratives in games are different. As we will see, my theory allows for a
great variety of difference, but also accounts for the similarities we can see between this modern
form and the ancient examples of multi-linear storytelling in the Homeric poems.

Why Multi-Linear?
Humans understand much of their experience in the form of a narrative. Our reliance on
time in everyday experience leads us to place a high emphasis on the order of events and the
origins of causes. We normally think of the narratives we encounter in everyday life as simple
linear narratives. We come, we leave, and then we return. However, much of our actual narrative
understanding of the world relies on possible narratives. We think of various ways in which our
partner may react when we tell him or her a secret. We think of possible consequences of our
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