Inferences from Narrative 39

Essential to understanding negative quiddity is the relationship between the qualities as they protect or attack the human brain. This is why Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show is about to become a significant topic, since the blog author considers this novel a narrative from which we can draw piercing inferences that apply to the issues of quality and quiddity.

For this to be a valid approach, the following must be noted, judged and applied:

“Inferences from narrative are based on the structure of stories.

A. Stories are personalized and invite the listeners to imagine himself or herself as a participant in the action.

B. Stories have a dramatic structure, including characters, plot, conflict, and resolution.

C. Telling the story permits predictions about what will come next or how the story will end.

D. Testing narrative inferences involves asking a series of questions.

     1.   Is the narrative coherent?

     2.   Is the narrative plausible?

     3.  Are characterizations consistent?

     4.  Does the narrative have resonance?”

– from Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning, by David Zarefsky of Northwestern University