The History of Storytelling
Long arcs of narrative form, from oral tradition to web serials.
Clusters
Oral tradition
The oral storyteller's toolkit, mnemonic structure, Homer and the AI of his age, echoes of oral tradition in AI fiction.
The Gutenberg disruption, author-as-celebrity, the novel as a 1750 invention, print and the legal birth of authorship.
Serialized fiction
Dickens and the cliffhanger, penny dreadfuls, pulp magazines, soap operas, web serials, the AI fiction precedent.
Radio
Radio drama at its peak, War of the Worlds and new-media panic, the death of radio drama, podcast fiction as radio reborn.
Film and TV
The 22-episode TV season, cable's effect, prestige TV and the novel-as-TV thesis, streaming's effect on form.
Games
Adventure games and interactive fiction, MMO lore, live-service infinite narrative, tabletop RPGs and the GM-as-AI parallel.
Fan fiction
Fan fiction history, AO3 as the largest internet fiction corpus, fan fiction as the closest historical precedent for AI fiction.
Forms we've forgotten
The chapbook, the verse romance, the literary annual, the fictionalized memoir, the novel in letters.
No published pieces in this pillar yet.