The Greatest Story Ever Interacted With
This paper originally appeared in The WyrdCon Companion Book published December 2012, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Ph.D. and Aaron Vanek.
A great story reaches into us and takes root in our souls. It captures our devotion and imagination, our conversation and company. Those who are truly inspired by the tale expend enormous energy meeting and communicating with other people who have been similarly affected, possibly wearing clothing or symbols that reflect their affinity for that story. They read and re-read the story, debating what the author meant at times, drawing inferences and making interpretations. They might go so far as to create stories that extend the plot line, often incorporating themselves into these new stories so that the story lives on far beyond the first telling. The characters are real to them in a personal way that reaches into their everyday lives.
While it might sound like I’m talking about fans of Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Twilight, I’m actually describing the behavior of those who practice Western religions, most notably Christianity, which is our greatest and most vibrant example of narrative interaction today. That’s because when human beings are deeply affected by a story — whether it’s of faith or fiction — they interact with that story in similar ways especially when it deals with themes of death, resurrection and a Magical Savior.
The Magical Savior
The Magical Savior is a strong motif in modern franchises where fan behavior most resembles the narrative interaction of Christians — in particular, the Harry Potter and Twilight novels and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who television shows.[1] We’ll first look at the motif and then see how it’s replicated in those franchises.
Many people are already familiar with the New Testament storyline, but for those less familiar, I’ll summarize it here. A child is born in Bethlehem under auspicious circumstances. At 30 years of age he embarks on a three-year ministry to the Jews in Jerusalem where he gathers disciples, performs miracles, admonishes temple leaders and talks about the true nature of God — love, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Many decide that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament who has come to rescue the Jews from their persecution and fulfill the Law. Jesus eventually upsets the status quo so badly when he claims to be the Son of God that he’s arrested for blasphemy after betrayed to authorizes by his friend Judas. He is sentenced to death. In the climactic ending, Jesus is mocked for being The King of the Jews as he’s forced to drag his own cross through the streets after being severely beaten by Roman soldiers. His supporters scatter in terror as he’s nailed to the cross to suffer a horrific death as God’s sacrificial lamb, taking on the sins of all mankind that they might be able to rejoin God again if they so believe in Him. Three days later, he is resurrected and appears to some of his followers.[2]
SPOILER ALERT: For those who are not familiar with the details of the above-mentioned books and television series — including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, “The Final Problem” and even Star Wars — this paper may contain spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.
One of the most beloved characters in literary history, Harry Potter is prepped through seven novels to eventually face off with the evil Voldemort, who had tried to kill him as a child but failed, killing Harry’s parents instead. Harry’s remaining Muggle family and the Slytherins bully him throughout the series. He has a small band of friends, namely Hermione and Ron, although that group grows with time to include Dumbledore’s Army and its “Judas,” Marietta Edgecombe. The final battle breaks out in the seventh book. Meeting Voldemort head on, Harry voluntarily goes to his death and the part of him that is Voldemort dies. He briefly meets his dead mentor Albus Dumbledore in the afterlife, and he’s then resurrected.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy is known as “the Chosen One” as she battles the forces of evil that escape the Hellmouth and try to destroy the world. Her comrades comprise “the Scoobies;” for a time, her soulful vampire boyfriend, Angel; and her “Watcher,” Giles, who abandons her in later seasons. She dies and is resurrected twice in the television series: once in the first season, prompting the appearance of a second Slayer, and again at the end of the fifth season. Ultimately she saves humanity with the help of her friends, closing the Hellmouth forever.
One of the most popular and longest admired Magical Saviors in genre history is The Doctor in Doctor Who, a television series that first aired in the UK from 1963 to 1984, then reappeared from 1986 to 1989, to return once again in 2005 to the present. The Doctor is an alien humanoid who, with the help of his Companion(s), protects the human race against threats of annihilation. The Doctor’s Companions occasionally abandon him by choice or death. In the new series, he feels isolated with or without Companions because he is the last living Time Lord. Like Jesus, he upsets the status quo. (“I’m usually called ‘The Doctor’, or ‘The Caretaker’, or ‘Get Off My Planet,’ though the last one isn’t so much a name, really…”)[3] He has the unique ability to regenerate when he dies, although he can die permanently if he receives a second deathblow during the regeneration process. As of the end of Season 7, he’s been resurrected ten times in bids to save humanity.
Second only to Harry Potter in the amount of fan fiction devoted to its characters and story lines, the Twilight saga riffs on the Magical Savior motif with Edward Cullen, a vampire who is over 100 years old. While initially reluctant to admit his love for the human Bella Swan, he saves her life many times. Themes of death, resurrection, and immortality echo throughout all four of the books in the series, which features vampirism and lycanthropy. As Bella is dying during the violent birth of their daughter, Edward turns her into a vampire to save her — effectively killing and resurrecting her in the same moment.
For thousands of years, the magical savior motif has fueled the greatest stories of humanity. From Osiris and Dionysus to Tammuz and Mithras, the motif has traveled over the millennia. It’s no wonder that the same themes seep into the most powerful tales of our time.
[1] I am omitting two major franchises that fall into this category — Star Wars and Star Trek — due to both space constraints and because they bridge the gap between the pre-Twitter and Twitter eras. I am focusing on narratives whose popularity surged in the latter era as that seems to be more directly connected to Jenkins’ “participatory culture” definition, which I will explain momentarily. This includes the new Doctor Who series.
[2] For the purposes of this paper, I am accepting the narrative as set during the 4th Century in the Nicene Creed.
[3] The Doctor in “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe,” December 25, 2011, Season 7.
Narrative Interaction: Filling in the Gaps
Narrative interaction entails the myriad ways in which audiences contribute to and celebrate their favorite stories. Fan fiction — defined as the fiction produced by fans based on a popular novel, movie, TV show or other franchise — is one of the best known forms of interacting with a narrative. According to scholar Francesca Coppa, fan fiction “fill[s] the need of a mostly female audience for fictional narratives that expand the boundary of the official source products offered on the television and movie screen.”[1] Transmedia storytelling pioneer Henry Jenkins says, “Fan fiction can be seen as an unauthorized expansion of these media franchises into new directions which reflect the reader’s desire to ‘fill in the gaps’ they have discovered in the commercially produced material.”
Fan fiction is only one type of narrative interaction or what Jenkins calls “participatory culture.” He explains, “…patterns of media consumption have been profoundly altered by a succession of new media technologies which enable average citizens to participate in the archiving, annotation, appropriation, transformation, and recirculation of media content. Participatory culture refers to the new style of consumerism that emerges in this environment.”
But “participatory culture” didn’t begin with the emergence of new technologies. Participation in the narrative of Christianity — including annotation, appropriation, transformation, and recirculation — has been ongoing for centuries. The practice of storytelling to fill in the gaps predates Christianity itself.
According to Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar, midrash is storytelling in Judaism that fills in the gaps[2] of the Bible. Other sources claim it resolves problems in the Hebrew text. Modern Christians not only use midrash to illuminate messianic passages in the Old Testament, but some scholars assert that all of the Gospels and Acts are midrash. [3]
The only difference between midrash and fan fiction is that, unlike Harry Potter and Twilight, an enormous number of people deem the Biblical story of the Magical Savior to be authentic. Because of this distinction, it can be difficult to recognize that Christians interact with their favorite narrative much the same way people do who have been deeply affected by other Magical Savior stories.
In the early centuries of Christianity, believers focused on those gaps regarding the nature of Jesus and his divinity (or lack thereof), as well as God and the Holy Spirit. In order to make sense of the Gospels, and therefore make sense of their own existence and relationship to God, they analyzed and extended the narrative until it fit their needs, using scripture to bolster their conclusions. Unfortunately, the early Church labeled some of the narrative expansions heresy rather than midrash because the stories included elements that didn’t meet the approval of the unified Christian church as promulgated in AD 325 by the First Council of Nicea.[4]
[1] Bacon-Smith, Camille (2000). Science Fiction Culture. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 978–0–8122–1530–4.
[2] “My Take: I don’t know if Jesus was married (and I don’t care),” by Stephen Prothero, Boston University religion scholar, CNN.com, September 21, 2012.
[3] “But in the end the result is a new perspective according to which we must view the gospels and Acts as analogous with the Book of Mormon, an inspiring pastiche of stories derived creatively from previous scriptures by a means of literary extrapolation.” New Testament Narrative as Old Testament Midrash by Dr. Robert Price.
[4] This council focused primarily on the Arian heresy, as well as the Nicene creed and the date Easter was to be celebrated.
Invitation to Participate
Fan fiction is considered an unauthorized expansion of the original franchise because authors rarely invite their readers to contribute to the narrative. Similar to interactive narrative designers, the “author” of the New Testament invites readers to participate and expand the original narrative — that is, within carefully established limits.
The first invitation comes in Romans 10:9, which states: “For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” A typical conversion prayer goes like this:
Lord Jesus, I believe You died for me and that you are alive and listening to me now. I repent of my sins and ask Your forgiveness. From this moment on, I decide to live for You and no longer for myself, to do Your will and not mine. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. Show me the way to the Father. Now fill me with the Holy Spirit, Who will teach me how to live for You and how to tell the world You are my Savior and Lord. I love You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.[1]
In Christianity, the very act of belief is participatory and the numerous activities following conversion contribute to one’s own narrative: baptism, communion, confession and congregation. Millions of people over the last two millennia have participated in — that is, interacted with — the story of Jesus through these behaviors. No new technology has ever been necessary.
If it seems a little thin to think of belief as participatory, consider that critically acclaimed author Toni Morrison argues the very act of reading is participatory: “I never describe characters very much. My writing expects, demands participatory reading, and that I think is what literature is supposed to do. It’s not just about telling the story; it’s about involving the reader. The reader supplies the emotions. The reader supplies even some of the color, some of the sound. My language has to have holes and spaces so the reader can come into it.”[2]
These holes are not unlike the gaps that Coppa and Jenkins describe, right down to the physical description of Jesus, the lack of which has invited interpretation by artists for centuries.
But the strongest invitation comes in The Great Commission, which appears in Matthew 28:16–20: “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Believers actively engage with the story and its characters, not just through prayer and daily behaviors, but by recruiting others for engagement.
Note that the Gospel verses comprise a direct invitation to become part of the narrative, to insert yourself into the story so that you’re interacting with Jesus and acting on his behalf. When a new believer accepts Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they personalize the story. This is not unlike when fan fiction authors draw readers into their narratives with the “Y/N” convention. “Y/N” indicates that the reader is to insert “your name” wherever it appears in the text. This convention specifically enables the reader to become one of the main characters of the story by inserting his or her name in the narrative.[3]
[1] © 2012 Presentation Ministries.
[2] Conversations with Toni Morrison, by Toni Morrison, edited by Danille Kathleen Taylor-Guthrie, University Press of Mississippi, 1994.
[3] This convention is currently more popular in fan fiction for the band One Direction than anywhere else, but its origins are in traditional fan fiction.
Forms of Participation
The participatory behavior of today’s franchise fans goes far beyond media midrash while still resembling that of Christians. (And by extension Judaism, although some behaviors are clearly proscribed.) Everything from the symbols they wear to the way they congregate helps them interact with the original narrative. It’s important to note that the Gospels do not explicitly command any specific behaviors beyond The Great Commission except for Jesus’ commands to break bread and share wine “in remembrance of (him)” during The Last Supper, thus creating early Christian Eucharist traditions.
Symbols
We see them almost every day: crucifixes atop churches, fish on car bumpers, animated angels in email messages. Symbols are extremely important to most religions, and these in particular telegraph profound concepts in Christianity.
In every story of the Magical Savior, a symbol captures his or her death-defying powers. In Christianity, that symbol is the crucifix, either empty or depicting the suffering Christ. The cross is possibly the most recognizable symbol of death and resurrection in the world. Crucifixes not only adorn churches inside and out as a reminder of the risen Christ, but they are very commonly worn as jewelry, on clothing and as tattoos.
Another symbol is the ichthys — the fish used by early Christians to identify one another. It may or may not contain the Greek word within, which is an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” The ichthys is commonly found these days on car bumpers.
Harry Potter
Like the cross, Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar represents the overcoming of death. It marks his initial defiance of death at Voldemort’s hands and presages that one day he’ll overcome Voldemort once and for all.
Fans wear the scar on their foreheads and other body parts, as well as on jewelry and clothing.
Doctor Who
The police box — also known as the T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) — ties together the many Doctors, representing his numerous resurrections. It also symbolizes mastery of death through time travel.
Fans display this particular symbol on buildings, jewelry, clothing, car bumpers and numerous household items such as jewelry boxes, cookie jars, tattoos and even bars[1].
[1] You’re drunker on the inside.
A Word About Tattoos
The most permanent way of personalizing a narrative is to make it a part of your very flesh. Tattoos are extremely popular for both Christians[1] and fans of modern narratives. Images of Christ, his disciples and doves are just as popular as images of the characters in stories like Harry Potter and even The Hunger Games. Plus, we see tattoo quotes from scripture as much as from books, movies, and television episodes.
[1] Some of the more conservative sects do not allow tattoos, either because they shun adornment or because they follow many of the Old Testament admonishments in Leviticus against making marks on the body.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The stake is the most prominent symbol in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although the cross necklace she wears comes a close second. Representing the final death of vampires, the ultimate weapon against resurrection of the dead, the stake appears in all of the usual places in fandom. But since the stake by itself can be misconstrued as belonging to one of many franchises, we often find the initial “B” or her full name attached to the stake.
We even see some aggressive cross-placement of the symbol as franchises compete.
Speaking of Twilight…
The apple in Twilight is probably the most interesting symbol as it ties into both the new and biblical narratives. In traditional Old Testament readings, the “fruit” from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — commonly described by Western culture as an apple — represents spiritual death. But in Mormonism and medieval narratives such as the poem Paradise Lost[1], the apple refers to the Fortunate Fall (also known as the Felix Culpa) where Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God by eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden, are considered fortunate because otherwise mankind could not have received the full extent of God’s goodness: Christ’s redemptive death.
But author Stephenie Meyer, who incidentally is a devout Mormon, says the apple symbolizes something more essential:
The apple on the cover of Twilight represents “forbidden fruit.” I used the scripture from Genesis. . .because I loved the phrase “the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” Isn’t this exactly what Bella ends up with? A working knowledge of what good is, and what evil is. The nice thing about the apple is it has so many symbolic roots. …In the end, I love the beautiful simplicity of the picture. To me it says: choice.
It’s clear in the story that Bella considers her choice — that is, her decision to die and be resurrected as a vampire — a felix culpa. Fans seem to agree.
As for the symbol itself and how fans display it, a simple Google search reveals that it matches the previously described patterns.
[1] An epic poem composed by the radical, heretical Puritan John Milton, Paradise Lost is an excellent example of interaction with the original narrative to fill in “the gaps.”
Communal Interaction
Almost every organized religion hosts regular gatherings for believers to read and re-read the source material, to listen to an authority figure expound on excerpts, and to engage in community. The desire for relationships based on a similar interest in the narrative drives people together in many different forums both online and offline. They write, perform and listen to related music; create art; and even reenact the original narratives in sacred plays. In Catholicism, the Eucharist Tradition amplifies the sacred play as its practitioners relive The Last Supper, with the belief that the wine and bread are actually turning into Christ’s blood and flesh. Believers celebrate special days related to the original narrative such as Christmas (the birthday of Christ) and Easter (his death and resurrection).
Fandom engages in all of these same communal behaviors. Harry Potter reading clubs like the “Harry Potter Alliance,” celebrations of Harry’s birthday (which is July 31, in case you’d forgotten, Muggle) and Twilight conventions (for the “Twihards”) are just a few examples. Annual conventions such as Gallifrey One for the Whovians have been around for decades. And while Buffy the Vampire Slayer reenactments are not quite as ritualistic as Passion plays, they demonstrate the same desire to act out and therefore commemorate pivotal moments from the narrative.
Music
Like Christian musicians who write songs inspired by the Bible, “wrock bands” play music known as Wizard Rock, which is inspired solely by the Harry Potter universe. Doctor Who fans have penned a rich collection of fan music called Time Lord Rock or “trock” for short. Buffy has inspired an enormous amount of music, which isn’t surprising seeing that music was an important element of the series. But what is surprising is the number of actors in the television series who have bands of their own. These aren’t exactly hymns praising The Creator — if you don’t count songs about Joss Whedon — but they do praise The Creation.
Online “Midrash”
Like midrash itself, sites such as Mugglenet, The Leaky Cauldron and others once tried to dissect the events of The Half-Blood Prince, as many fans couldn’t accept the death of Albus Dumbledore, posting scores of essays and hosting endless discussions and debates. The conversation continues to this day on many fan sites about the series as fans reminisce, review and even dispute events in the books. The same is true for the other series and then some. Doctor Who sites like Timelash.com, WhovianNet, DoctorWho.com and many others — not to mention any nook or cranny of social media — serve as outlets for fans to debate the events laid out in the series as to how they might affect Who cannon. Many times, fans are simply debating what the hell happened in the first place. The tolerance for “heresy” is of course higher than for those early Christian sects, but the discussions can be just as heated.
The Changing Story
Who wrote the “original narrative” of Christianity? Scholars have hotly debated authorship of the Gospels for ages. They’ve also called into question exactly who called Jesus “The Savior” in the first place because, while Jesus made the blasphemous claim that he was the Son of God, he never called himself The Messiah. Therefore if it really was someone outside of the narrative who called Jesus the Messiah, then participation is what changed the story from one of a magical man to that of a Magical Savior.
The process of participation changes the narrative. One of the more striking examples of this occurred in Mormonism with the tale told by Joseph Smith. The angel Moroni told him where to find a “buried book of golden plates as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of seer stones, which had been hidden in a hill near his home.”[1] With this event Smith not only used the [Y/N] self-insertion of fan fiction but he sparked the development of a whole new narrative tangential to the original, eventually revamping the story and borrowing its terms and character names to create a brand new cosmology and mythology, complete with a felix culpa.
This sort of metamorphosis happens all the time in fan fiction as authors expand the original content both to explore new stories with the old characters and to insert themselves into the narrative. Bella is an orphan, Edward is human and has a girlfriend named Tanya, or the wolves show up a few minutes later… Sometimes the story changes to the point where it’s no longer recognizable. The mega blockbuster 50 Shades of Gray, for example, was initially Twilight fan fiction.
A popular version of fan fiction creates a romantic or sexual relationship between characters where none existed previously. An enormous number of stories couple the male characters (in what’s called “slash”), as well as female characters (“femmeslash”) and even heterosexual partnerships (“het” or “general” slash). While not as popular a practice in ancient times, both medieval Catharists and modern authors have changed the narrative around Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene. Modern writings include the nonfiction, Holy Blood, Holy Grail[2], and the novel that cannibalized it, The Da Vinci Code[3]. Referring to the recently uncovered Coptic papyrus that purportedly reveals Jesus had a wife, some commentators even describe the papyrus writings as “fan fiction.”
In an example of contemporary Christian fan fiction, the Left Behind series extends and therefore changes the narrative of The Book of Revelation. The series weaves the enigmatic imagery described by John of Patmos with references from other epistles to fill in the “gaps” between prophecy and future. Author Tim LaHaye states that, “Left Behind is the first fictional portrayal of events that are true to the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy.” Yet its premillenial dispensationalist interpretation of the bible is considered less “literal” and more fictive by almost all other Christian denominations besides evangelicals[4]. Ironically, John of Patmos warns in Revelation 22:19, “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”[5] This makes Revelation the one book of the New Testament that discourages participation, if for no other reason than for fear of what might happen should one accidentally subtract in the process of adding.
But it’s not just the story that changes. The names of the participants can change when they come in contact with the narrative. For example, the apostle Saul’s name changed to Paul after his conversion. No one is certain why Saul changed to Paul at that time. It’s possible that he chose to use his “Gentile” name because he felt it would be more effective in preaching to the Gentiles. Yet in the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the baby is given a baptismal name in addition to its birth name. While this can be and often is the same name as the birth name, it doesn’t have to be. Regardless, the type of name — usually those of saints, angels and other bible characters — reflects that child’s permanent connection to the Christian narrative. Reminiscent of the baptismal name, fanfic authors and artists almost as a rule use pen names, creating a unique persona within the world of participation.[6] While some authors use one pen name for all of the fan fiction that they write across franchises, others use a unique pen name for each franchise. The latter practice allows an author to write for various franchises without having to deal with the friction that occasionally occurs when other authors realize that he or she writes fan fiction for a “rival” franchise or genre.
[1] Smith, Joseph, Jr.; Mulholland, James; Thompson, Robert B.; Phelps, William W.; Richards, Willard (1839–1843), “History of the Church, Ms. A–1”, in Jessee, Dean C, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002, ISBN 1–57345–787–6.
[2] By Michael & Leight, Richard & Lincoln, Henry Baigent, Jonathan Cape, © 1982.
[3] By Dan Brown, Doubleday, © 2003.
[4] “Beam Me Up Theology” by John Dart, former religion writer for the Los Angeles Times.
[5] King James 2000 Bible.
[6] See the terrific variety of pen names on Fanfiction.net and even DeviantArt.
Participation Creates Ownership
As fan writers and artists interact with the storyline and “fill in gaps,” they develop a sense of ownership. The participants no longer see the story belonging solely to the original author because they have fed it with their emotional, intellectual and creative energy. The result sometimes does produce a work that’s different enough to garner a book deal with a major publisher, such as what happened with 50 Shades of Grey and Mortal Instruments.
Their feelings, however, go far beyond authorial proprietorship. Whether it’s a tale of fiction or faith, the personal investment is just as strong. For example, Dumbledore’s death sent fans scrambling back to the books, combing the pages for clues to see if he was Obi Wan-dead or just Sherlock Holmes-dead. This mirrors the reaction of both early Christians and modern believers when Jesus fails to return as predicted or when the Rapture doesn’t materialize. Even the intensity of the outrage over the unexpected addition of Dawn Summers, Buffy’s little sister, bordered on bizarre.
Because story franchises are crossing from books to screen, story participants embrace the behavior and values of the original story world to some degree. They might even be so rigid as to expect the actors who embody the characters to embrace those same behaviors and values. We’ve seen it for years in other franchises, such as the X-Files, but the strongest example occurred recently with the betrayal of Rob Pattinson who plays Edward in Twilight by his real-life girlfriend Kristen Stewart who plays Bella. When the two actors became romantically involved, they took an element of the story and made it real. At first, the fans supported it enthusiastically because it followed the script, so to speak. But when Stewart betrayed Pattinson and broke the story rules, fans went ballistic, some video taping their hysterics and others physically attacking her.
Participation isn’t acceptable by those who become too much a part of the original story, such as Stewart and Pattinson when they took on real-life roles resembling their onscreen relationship. They have to tell the story “right.” Only outside participants can interact with the story, change it and own it. While not a part of the original Jesus story, famous televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and Ted Haggard took on the roles of Jesus’ original disciples and broke the rules of the New Testament narrative with their sexual transgressions. The members of their congregations were deeply upset. They didn’t physically attack anyone or make Internet accusations, but in the case of Ted Haggard they did grieve and express anger, and about 20% even left the church.
What This Means for Interactive Storytellers
Death. Resurrection. Salvation at the hand of the Magical Savior. Why do stories with these themes provoke such a strong need to interact? Why do we want to become part of these stories, to even own them to some degree? Is it a way for us to deal with our own vulnerability and mortality?
Regardless of what it means to fans, interactive storytellers should take note. Whether you are creating an alternate reality game, a live-action role-playing game, an interactive theater experience or something entirely new, people must want to participate in your story regardless of the interactive features. This means you must focus first on the story itself and not the design. As we’ve seen in these examples, participation is spontaneous and prolific when the narrative captures the reader’s heart and imagination. When creating the story, consider using the Magical Savior motif, as well as themes of death and resurrection. Think about symbols, too. Raise the stakes as high as possible and infuse your story with deep emotion, strong relationships and catharsis. Your design should aid and abet the participatory behaviors that will then naturally arise. If your story is powerful enough, the participation that results can create not just an interesting online experience or evening of intrigue, but rather a cultural force majeure.
May the plot be ever in your favor.
