Is fiction a technology? Last night I was reading Lovecraft's "The Other Gods" entirely because it w

Is fiction a technology?

Last night I was reading Lovecraft's "The Other Gods" entirely because it was mentioned in Slate Star Codex's "Meditations on Moloch." The blogger, Scott Alexander, describes it this way: "As stories go, it lacks things like plot or characterization or setting or point. But for some reason it stuck with me."

I found thhat take a little hyperbolic once I got going with it. I mean, dudes climb a mountain. That's a plot. But whatever; I see his point. In particular because I have been writing a "short story" right now that's more of a sketch of a science fictional world than it is a "story" in the current sense. And I very much mean the current sense, because I think what I'm writing might have flown with a lot of editors at another time.

But these days editors of fiction are much more strict about this stuff. You can't just string together a bunch of imagery for a reader. There needs to be a reason they are going to through it, a person they care about, a change that occurs in the world and themes that become illuminated.

This is why I started to wonder if fiction functions something like a technology. Our software stack has built up over the years. We have greater expectations of what works. More refined collective expections.

Or maybe that's all just fashion and it will all swing back?

Anyway I'll finish up this world sketch and then I'll come up with a story taking place in this world I'm imagining and that's what I'll try to get shipped off somewhere.