Living in Spin

Download or read book Living in Spin written by Andrew P. Porter and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-11-18 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All the hard questions about human action are about what to include in a story, what can be left out, and how to characterize what gets included. A narrative selects from all the world's motions which ones are part of or relevant to an act, and so narratives give us what narratives have already shaped: the relation is circular. Many narratives can be told of an act, not all consistent. Some features of human action: - events "off-stage" determine what's happening "on-stage"; - many actions ``pass through'' motions in view; - an act can be changed after the fact; - action presupposes language; - what an act is can be highly ambiguous; - we judge acts (and narratives) because we have a stake in them.