thread: 2006-01-12 : A third kind of me
On 2006-01-13, Emily wrote:
Hi Charles,
Also, I think push is harder to do without mechanics, as pull is about agreement, while push is about disagreement.
I agree. This also gets at Ben's question from upthread: my experience, at least of our free-form, is that it is a pull fest. We talked about this last summer: our varieties of free-form are additive primarily.
For example, I describe something that my character does, you make this suggestion about how that would interact with an aspect of the world. I make up something new about a local culture that would be neat with those and *voila*, we then can see what the ramifications are of my originally described character actions.
PTA is pull heavy in my experience. At least, the atmosphere that it creates (with the pitch session, scene framing & everyone being enjoined to suggest things that highlight each other's character issues plus fan mail) makes additive collaborative exploration easy & fun.
Does that match how others see pull?
This makes WMW go "Kinda reinforces my sense"
that pull is in some way about a retreat from resolution. Not that that's a bad thing.
This makes TLB go "But ... what if you agree to disagree?"
Specifically, what if your social contract is "I'm putting this character forward specifically so that you guys can challenge my treatment of him, and through our adversity we can create beauty and truth" or some rot like that?
This makes SLB go "Still pull."
"Push me! Come on, you can push harder than that!" It's a pull plus a promise to push.
This makes TLB go "Yeah, but ..."
... is what the person does in response to your "Push me! Come on! Push me and I'll push back!" still pushing? Aren't they pulling your response? They are (by pushing you) creating the void into which your counter-push will fall.
This makes BR go "Pull is not reaction, it is action"
If you just are reacting, then you're just reacting. If you make someone "push" you, then you've pulled them and they've reacted. Lots of what looks like push and pull is really just reaction.
This makes SLB go "You pull. They give (i.e., follow the pull). You push as promised."
