BOB WALKED DOWN THE STREET by David K. Elson

1. BOB WALKED DOWN THE STREETby David K. Elson Bob walked down the street one day. He turned a corner and saw a child. He walked past the child. “Hi,” said the child. “Hi,” said Bob.

2. After Bob finished walking past the child, he came across a street corner. Bob walked over the street corner and onto the street. After crossing the street, he arrived at the opposite corner and started to walk on the sidewalk again. Bob continued to walk down the sidewalk. In order to walk, Bob started by leaning over. Every time he was about to fall over, he put out a leg. Bob did this over and over again. He switched legs every time he did it. Bob kept walking. Did you know that walking has a long history? Bob did. Bob was proud to be a part of the history of walking. If there had been a sign about the history of walking, Bob would have walked by it.

3. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze.

4. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none.

5. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none. He was hit! He looked at the poison arrows. One had a note:

6. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none. He was hit! He looked at the poison arrows. One had a note: THIS IS REVENGE FOR THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, THE LEADER OF THE SECRET CULT OF HAMMURABI.

7. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none. He was hit! He looked at the poison arrows. One had a note: THIS IS REVENGE FOR THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, THE LEADER OF THE SECRET CULT OF HAMMURABI. IF YOU ARE NOT THE MURDERER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS NOTE.

8. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none. He was hit! He looked at the poison arrows. One had a note: THIS IS REVENGE FOR THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, THE LEADER OF THE SECRET CULT OF HAMMURABI. IF YOU ARE NOT THE MURDERER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS NOTE. Bob hit a button on his diamond wristwatch, causing all his clothing to vaporize in a pop that deafened the little girl. He later adopted her.

9. Suddenly, Bob felt a burning, painful sensation is his grotesquely overgrown, tattoo-laden thigh, which bled a cyan-colored ooze. It jolted up through his restraining chains and belts of ammunition until it reached his neck, cutting off his oxygen. Luckily, he needed none. He was hit! He looked at the poison arrows. One had a note: THIS IS REVENGE FOR THE MURDER OF MY FATHER, THE LEADER OF THE SECRET CULT OF HAMMURABI. IF YOU ARE NOT THE MURDERER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS NOTE. Bob hit a button on his diamond wristwatch, causing all his clothing to vaporize in a pop that deafened the little girl. He later adopted her. But Bob wasn’t nude for long. One by one, long, poison-tipped purple spikes protruded from each pore of his decayed skin.

10. Why do we find stories interesting? • Is there a pattern that good stories follow? • What good would such a model be?

11. NL Generation and Understanding Through Narrative David K. Elson December 2, 2003

12. The Plot • Why study narrative? • What is narrative? • What makes stories interesting? • How have stories been modeled? • What’s the new idea?

13. My Own Story • Columbia CS degree • NLP employee • Newsblaster project • Filmmaker • Project started out of writer’s block • Masters student • Project geared toward news summarization

14. Many Tasks for Stories • News • Biographies • Entertainment • History • World View • Allegories, cautionary tales, fables, myths • Social interaction • Gossip

15. A Specialized Model • You know statistical language models • Used for generation, knowledge detection • “Expectation” analogous to news & pitching • A higher-level narrative model can take advantage of this structure • Potential for better generation and understanding for many texts • Not all texts are narrative

16. Why study interestingness? • A story fails at the tasks if people find it boring • Is interestingness “deterministic?” • Therefore, to understand how stories work is to understand when stories are interesting

17. What else is there to study? • Anthropology: studies of myth • Theory: • Literary semiotics, structuralism • Definitional questions • What is a story? What is not a story? • Fictional “recentering” • Psychology and cognition: • Constructing an image from language • Narrative in development: nature or nurture? • Narrative views of memory and self-identity

18. My mission: • Create a model of story anatomy • Understand how stories create interest • Implement the model on the computer • Story generation and understanding • News summarization • Predict levels of human interest

19. The Plot • Why study narrative? • What is narrative? • What makes stories interesting? • How have stories been modeled? • What’s the new idea?

20. General definition • Multiple layers to a story • What the story is, and how the story is told • Content vs. style of delivery • An additional distinction:

21. Layers of narrative Observed Implied

22. Fabula Elements of a fabula • Characters (actors) • Goals and objects of goals • Raw set of world events • “Actual” or imagined by characters • Causally related • Abstract: no interpretation or expression • Ordered in a timeline

23. Fabula John’s Story: Fabula • John applies to Columbia. • John gets into Columbia. • John picks his nose. • John goes to his first class. • John and Judy meet in class. • John tells his Columbia story to Judy. • John leaves class. • John and Helen meet. 0 FABULA TIME LINE

24. Layers of narrative

25. Story • A focalizer perceives the fabula in a sequence of observations • The point of view. • Fabula events are selected or dismissed. • Understanding narrative means discerning the fabula from the story. • Analogous to computer vision

26. Story • Who can be a focalizer? • An external narrator • The sun set over John going to his first class • A character in the story • I saw John go to his first class • Laura saw John go to his first class

27. Story John’s Story: Focalization #1 “College Promotional Video” (external focalizer) • John applied to Columbia. • John went to his first class. • John listened furiously. • John ran into a high school sweetheart.

28. Story John’s Story: Focalization #2 “Judy Meets a Nut” (Judy as focalizer) • Judy met John in class. • John babbled about his experience: • His applying to school. • His getting into school. • John left and flirted with some girl. Jump backward in timeline

29. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Standard scene PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

30. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Narrative break (ellipsis) PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

31. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Montage (summary) PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

32. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Flashback PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

33. Story Plot is a good name told twice FABULA TIME LINE “Circular” structure (Much news, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects) PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

34. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Memento PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

35. Story Plot is a good name FABULA TIME LINE Multiple focalizers (Rashomon, Poisonwood Bible) PLOT (STORY) TIME 0

36. Layers of narrative

37. Discourse • The surface depiction of the story • Many “genres” of narrative discourse: • Written prose • Stage drama • Cinema • Poetry • Hieroglyphs • Shadow puppets

38. Discourse A story is told by a narrative agent • Closely related to focalizer • Can be same “entity” or different • Can be external or central to story • Uses the tools of the medium to enhance the effect of the story on the audience • Interprets what the effect should be • This is style

39. Discourse The narrative agent’s tools in prose • Descriptions of actions • Quotations of speech • Selection of details • Comments and descriptions • Imagery • Foreshadowing • Grammar and word usage • Ideological pontifications • Historical digressions

40. Discourse The narrative agent’s tools in drama • Scene selection • Blocking • Dialogue • Set design • Lighting • Casting • Performance

41. Discourse The narrative agent’s tools in cinema • Scene selection • Blocking • Dialogue • Set design • Lighting • Casting • Performance • Editing • Music • Camera placement • Lens selection • Depth of field

42. The Plot • Why study narrative? • What is narrative? • What makes stories interesting? • How have stories been modeled? • What’s the new idea?

43. How was the book? • Good story, but badly told • No story, but interesting anyway • I liked the main character, but nothing happened to him • The plot was OK, but I couldn’t stand the characters • Good story, but I don’t really care about the subject • Not very interesting, but I’m really into the subject • Fascinating setting, but story didn’t do it justice • I guess it was entertaining, but it didn’t take me anywhere I haven’t been before

44. Interestingness is a product LISTENER RELEVANCE DISCOURSE (TELLING) STORY X * Y * Z = NARRATIVE INTERESTINGNESS

45. LISTENER RELEVANCE DISCOURSE (TELLING) STORY X * Y * Z = NARRATIVE INTERESTINGNESS

46. STORY

47. STORY PLOT CHARACTER WORLD a * b * c = X (story interestingness)

48. STORY What’s a good story? • Suspenseful plot • Interesting characters • Immersing world

49. Innate questions let us crave stories • Suspenseful plot • “How should I handle what may happen to me?” • Interesting characters • “What kind of person should I be?” • Immersing world • “What’s out there?”

50. “How should I handle what may happen to me?” PLOT • Character goals we care about • Obstacles we haven’t thought of • Conflicts with others we may have to face • Solutions we couldn’t have thought of