No One Truth

A reminder of the different paths to story.

Dramatica co-creator Melanie Anne Phillips starts things out right with her reflections on Truth:

Dramatica (narrative) reflects how the mind operates in all its myriad processes.  And from it, we can learn much about life, as we can from all structurally sound stories.  

Perfect affirmation of everything I believe. But wait...

For example:  There is no one "capital T" Truth, but many small "t" truths that are all angles on the actuality that cannot be directly seen.  As is said in the East, "The Tao that can be spoken is not the Eternal Tao."  Meaning, those who have one definition or understanding of things are, by definition, wrong.  No one can be right, because none of us can see things from every possible angle.  But, for those who break away from a single view and begin to adopt two – Yin and Yang, the binary opposite, the journey has begin to eventually see everything from as many viewpoints as possible and thereby come ever closer to the unattainable Truth.

Why would she say that?! My whole being relies on the definitive accuracy of the Dramatica theory of story. To suggest that there is an alternative that does not account for Four Throughlines that encapsulate a single inequity shatters all my preconceptions.

Although perhaps by stating this Truth she verifies the model of Dramatica: that there is not one Throughline to rule them all. We need two, if not four, perspectives in order to truly appreciate what is there. We need to break away from myopic understandings of narrative if for no other reason than to nullify our own prejudices.

In other words, Dramatica offers insight into how to reach Truth.