Toroidal framing of narrative as container for a cycle of dramatic situations

Thirty-six Dramatic Situations faced by Global Governance? (Part #11)

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Potentially of considerable relevance to the quest for greater insight into the pattern of dramatic situations from a global perspective is the preference of many for the experience of narrative as a contrast to any systemic perspective. The latter is then readily held to detract from the story and its interest as a source of excitement and surprise for the listener/spectator. As a story the narrative is a journey of discovery to an important degree. The story teller, as with those crafting a narrative, may also resist any initiative which undermines their particularly valued role in relation to the audience.

For the audience, the potential surprises in the development of the story evoke a valued sense of anticipation -- even if it is told many times. For the story-teller the art lies in part in ensuring the elements of the story remain (provisionally) "under the radar" or "over the horizon". This may be understood in relation to a daily news cycle, the narrative has to be sustained by a daily drip of snippets -- as is only too evident in the case of propaganda relating to the operation in Ukraine.

Further clarification is required as to how the success of major aesthetic achievements "work" when defined as a cycle or a ring -- as with opera cycles.

Circumferential tori: Of notable interest to the argument are the animations above indicating the association of particular edges or vertices with great circles circumscribing the polyhedron or its dual. Each such cycle, as a journey, can be understood as a torus -- a circular tunnel -- through which experience is moved as the story develops. A torus also reinforces the sense in which the narrative is a form of container of experience for the duration of the story. There is the further sense that at any particular time in the journey, the attractive dynamics of the story function as a form of vortex for attention -- dynamically resisting dissociation from the narrative by which attention is held.

To the extent that people and groups structure their lives through stories, there is a case for exploring "toroidal living", as discussed separately (Imagining Toroidal Life as a Sustainable Alternative: from globalization to toroidization or back to flatland? 2019).

One exploration of relevance to that perspective is that offered by the screenshots of the animations below. The narrative as a toroidal container (in blue below) can be represented as experienced at any particular moment by a second torus (in red) circulating within it. This torus functions as an attention vortex -- deriving information from the container and pulling it into the centre. The relative rotations of the blue and red tori are effectively interlocked (although this is relatively difficult to see, even in the wireframe versions).

Cycle of narrative experience represented by a red vortex
Partially transparent rendering of containing narrative	Wireframe rendering of containing narrative

The narrative can be understood as having phases, stages, or dramatic situations, indicated on the left below from a polar perspective as 10 separations (rather than a larger set). An alternative design metaphor can be used for the experiential perspective -- an approximation to a cardioid form in 3D, as discussed separately (Cognitive heart dynamics framed by two tori in 3D, 2016; Fearful attraction of a hole, 2016; Cardioid Attractor Fundamental to Sustainability, 2005). In the second image from the left the separations are shown as transparent disks within a wire frame rendering of the torus.

Reverting to the vortex form above, the succession of experiences of dramatic situations (cognitive crises) can be represented using the classic Zen 10 ox-herding images -- given the absence of any recognized depictions of the set of dramatic situationsUse of those images was the focus of a previous toroidal presentation (Zen of Facticity: Bull, Ox or Otherwise? Herding facts and their alternatives in a post-truth-era, 2017; Phases in the "Re-cognition" of "Bull" according to Zen? Experimental attribution of significance to traditional distinctions, 2017). The adapation is represented in the animations on the right.

Use of alternative design metaphors for cyclic experience of dramatic situations
Polar view of story stages	Toroidal container of story stages	Zen Ox-herding stages	Toroidal container of story stages

More speculative animations regarding the relationship between the narrative and the experience of it are presented below. Those on the left have the toroidal pattern within the cardiod pattern. Those on the right have the two tori interlocked -- the narrative and the experience of it (Cognitive osmosis through topological eversion and interlocking tori -- framing outside-inside otherwise, 2017).

Alternative design metaphors indicative of more complex engagement of the perceiver with the narrative
Cardioid as container for a toroidal narrative		Interlocking tori: narrative and perceiver

As triggers for imagination and discussion, regarding the experience of dramaticc sitations in a narrative, the animations lend themselves to various modifications and improvements, notably with respect to orientation, rate of rotation, direction of rotation, relative transparency, and colour. Some of the variationd are necessarily less satisfactory on web pages. As 3D images, most are best experienced and manipulated in virtual reality.

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