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Cathy's Book was kind of cute, I mean don't get me wrong, I enjoy angsty narcissistic teenage girl fiction as much as the next person, but as far as it qualifying as an ARG, I believe that it's sort of like a hybrid between standard literary narrative and an ARG. The book as a discourse contains a relatively linear story with characters, plot, etc., all of the components for a narrative. The addition of the extra clues, or "kernels" and "satellites" if we're applying Chatman's terminology, make the story ARG-esque, but it doesn't actually meet the criteria of an ARG.  read more »

I'm such an advertising major.
As I was reading Chapter 3 of Story and Discourse, about existents and Chatman's definitions of characters and what contributes to making them who we think they are in books and movies, I started thinking about advertisements in today's world.
If you think about it, what are ads but little 30 second to a minute- long stories that try to create relationship between consumers and the companies they buy their products for? The campaigns that work, at least, try to associate some characteristic to the brand they're trying to advocate- namely, to create a brand image that people are able to recognize and have an affinity for.

This seems to correlate with one of Chatman's definitions of character- that they are a set of traits that the reader learns to identify with, and ultimately, to associate the name of that character with. He says that by the end of the story, well-created characters are viewed by readers as "old friends or enemies"- you know who they are, but you can't define exactly what they're like in only one or two terms. In other words, you KNOW them.  read more »