“As a cultural form, database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events). Therefore, database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world.” WorldHumansFormOrderCultureCausesNaturalEnemyEffectsEventsClaimsRefuseListsNarrativeTerritoryContrastCompetingItemsExclusiveCause And EffectTrajectoryDatabasesNatural Enemies Author:Lev Manovich
“The point of recapitulation in the first movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony unleashes one of the most horrifyingly violent episodes in the history of music....The point is not to hold up Beethoven as exceptionally monstrous. The Ninth Symphony is probably our most compelling articulation in music of the contradictory impulses that have organized patriarchal culture since the Enlightenment. Moreover, within the parameters of his own musical compositions, he may be heard as enacting a critique of narrative obligations that is...devestating.” FirstsMayCultureHeardMovementEnlightenmentMusicalViolentObligationNarrativeImpulseOrganizedEpisodesCompellingCompositionContradictorySymphonyCritiqueMonstrousParametersArticulationHistory Of MusicMusical CompositionRecapitulation Author:Susan McClary
“The narrative of so many fairy tales are timeless in so many different cultures, and they have been since the dawn of man. They represent escapism, but they all feature themes that have such poignancy in a modern world.” MenWorldHas BeensDifferentCultureModernTalesNarrativeDawnFeaturesThemeFairyFairy TaleTimelessModern WorldEscapismDifferent CulturesPoignancy Author:Lily Cole
“In our 'don't just sit there, do something' culture, when we get sick we are supposed to become characters in a heroic medical narrative that conceals the remorselessness of pathology, the intractable fact of human vulnerability, and the inevitable inadequacies of medicine. To many of the participants in the medical drama, aggressive treatment - even when it fails - represents a quasi-religious quest for immortality and meaning.” HumansCharacterFactsCultureReligiousFailingDramaSickMedicineIllnessMedicalInevitableNarrativeImmortalityVulnerabilityTreatmentAggressiveHeroicQuestsParticipantsInadequacyPathology Author:Suzanne Gordon
“I think a lot of artists no longer want to participate in or be associated with narrative because of its corruptedness in contemporary culture.” ThinkingWantArtistCultureContemporaryNarrative Author:Rachel Cusk