About

Stories are sometimes understood to consist of two types: those led by plot (fast, fun, commercial) and those led by character (classy, literary, psychological). In practice all stories are a mixture of the two, and each method can be used to any end. But there is a third way.

Stories can be led by ideas. This is not just a way of making them, for those makers who happen to enjoy it, but a way of thinking about all stories. Because every one of them comes from a political context, and so is political; every one of them makes certain philosophical assumptions, and so is philosophical. These contexts are a huge part of what stories “tell” us, whether deliberately or not.

The purpose of this website is to explore novels and films (and games and TV shows and poems) through the lens of what I’ve called the history of ideas. Though what I really mean is a history of ideas, or just things I happen to have read about become interested in. It’s a purpose that I have of course made up in hindsight, after several posts had already emerged. The posts seem to be long-form, infrequent, and I’m afraid they continue to gestate even years after birth.

This is also a place where I put bits of original fiction, outside of larger projects.

The website is not promoted or especially optimised for search, and I have no idea how you got here. I can only hope that you’re on the inclining part of your journey, act two of Freytag’s pyramid, in which the hero changes scene and absorbs new things. And I hope you don’t let any of my interest in the structural, contextual side of stories get in the way of their magic.

Because to be honest I think they’re a kind of worship, a benevolent delusion. Even the dodgy stuff.

I was born in 1987 and live in London.

Edward Knight
December 2020

e.c.j.knight@gmail.com