“Hold on, we can’t both be protagonists,” Stephen said. “There’s two of us, and there can only be one protagonist.”
“Well, that isn’t necessarily true,” Michael said.
“Yes, it is,” Stephen said. “‘Protagonist’ is Greek. It means something like ‘first struggler’, or ‘first actor.’”
“First Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and now this,” Michael said. “Where do you get this stuff from?”
“Just because I’ve never read Isaac Asimov doesn’t mean I’m some kind of illiterate,” he said. “I minored in theater.”
“Very well, then, but the etymology you’re citing depends on a very specific tradition of Greek drama, wherein there are never more than three actors on stage at any time,” Michael said. “The protagonist, deuteragonist, and the tritagonist. The terms in this context referred to the actors rather than the multiple parts they played, with each actor after the first representing a progressive step in the evolution from a dramatic recitation of poetry by a lone orator to something resembling the art of acting as we know it today.”
“Maybe ‘deuteragonist’ and ‘tritagonist’ referred to the actors, but not ‘protagonist’, though,” Stephen said. “There was always only one single character played by the protagonist.”
“See? One character for the protagonist to play,” Michael said. “‘Protagonist’ in this context means ‘first actor’, not ‘first character’… therefore, merely by calling a person who exists within a story and not merely as a role taken up by a separate actor a ‘protagonist’, you tacitly acknowledge that the modern definition of the word has expanded and evolved beyond its original meaning, just as the state of the art of storytelling has evolved to include more complicated plots, with more complex arrangements of characters within them, including ensembles without any one clear ‘main character’ for any length of time.”
Stephen stared blankly, seeming to take a long moment to digest Michael’s words.
“But there can still only be one protagonist,” he finally said. “Because of the original Greek.”
“Fine, then,” Michael said. “I guess I’ll be the protagonist.”
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wow…does anyone else feel a little slow?
oh that’s right, there IS no one else cuz i’m FIRST!!! w00t!!
I really think you need to bring back the “pedant please” rants. You obviously still need to get it out of your system
lol.
It took me at least 3 reads to get that paragraph. But now I get it. Awesome.
XD
Ok…..
Why I will never be a successful writer: I can’t come up with witty banter even moderately near AE’s level.
Thus, Alexandra Erin has hammered down the last nail in the coffin of my now deceased writing career.
You should be ashamed of yourself. =P
I’m kind of proud of her, AE rocks. You should challenge yourself to improve, allow her to be an inspiration.
I *knew* it
nice riposte from Michael
Why can’t I be the protagonist? Oh well, poor Stephan, destined to be killed off.
@Vanessa: Because I’m the protagonist. Thats why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Because the action is happening some 400 years after they were born.
was that whole protagonist rant reflecting the fact that Tribe has no definite protagonist itself?
oh, what a wit, you are!
That… That was priceless. I know people like that, by the way.
“but… the word meant *this* 2000 years ago!”
“yes, but the meaning has evolved. It now stands for *this*”
“but… that’s not what it MEANS*insert whiny tone here*!”
I keep expecting one of them to get killed off suddenly, thereby ending the argument. I hope not though.
There can only be one protagonist, AT A TIME!!! *cue dramatic musical sting*
I don’t understand the comment “First Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and now this,” Michael said. “Where do you get this stuff from?” when Michael is the one who brought up Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to begin with. This is making it sound as if Stephen brought them up first, which I double checked to make sure that he didn’t. Is this a mistake, or am I reading this completely wrong?
It’s the fact that Stephen got the R&G reference (and knew that they died.)
I guess Michael is used to making all sorts of obscure little references and snickering up his sleeve when no one gets them! Just like my old english teacher Mr. Franks! It wasn’t funny Franks, We were but children, how should we have known that James Joyce drones on like a deragned b-52 bomber with a never ending fuel supply?!
Sorry, I may have gone overboard there. Bit of a flashback.
Sorry.
There can be only ONE!
hows about we just call them agonists. its that, or the agony of the greek
oh where oh where is my next tribe fix AE…MU does the body good but im hooked on tribe too….please please satiate my hunger lol its been too long
but on a side note im sure what you do is not easy and i cant even begin to comprehend all the hard mental strain you must go through to make written crack on a daily basis for us MU junkies but i need a little but of a tribe fix here and there too…pretty please and thank you AE!!!
ps to all of you who dont know what MU (from my previous comment there) is it was my gateway story and id highly recommend it to all just go to AE’s website and you can find it
~talk is cheap, advertising is expensive right AE
http://www.alexandraerin.com …its the place to be
Couldn’t stand the weekend without the MU updates myself, so ended up here. Alexandra, you keep on amazing me.. as if MU wasn’t enough of an addiction!
but.. is tribe on hiatus?! you’re almost a week late AE! Thats not quite like you.. You are planning on continuing tribe right? coz maybe there arent too many ppl hooked to it now (seems so by the number of comments), but believe me.. this is HOT stuff! Do continue writing!!!
Yeah, Tribe’s coming back… next Monday. I’ve updated the front page to reflect the current schedule. See, I’ve been missing updates for pretty much everything besides MU due to missed sleep, and I’m kicking caffeine in order to get that under control. I’m giving myself a week break on everything not MU to ride out the worst of the withdrawl.
//plastic dinosaur claws at sky, lightning flashes dramatically//
“Raaah! Moooooooore!“
Had to come over here from MU when I was needing a fix, just caught up and must say another amazingly addictive story. I find it amusing that my two favorite characters thus far in the story are names of my favorite characters in my real life! lol
It’s still monday the 14th so you’re not yet late. But I’m going through withdrawls.
I really loved the first chapter, the second was a brief insight into the workings of things, and this one is starting out fantastic. I’m very anxious to find out what happens.
Enter the antagonist who then shoots the co-protagonists in their heads because instead of acting to get themselves out of trouble, they stood around and bickered like collegiate school children, thus imitating the light side of the downfall of every villain, the “before I kill you, here’s my deal” tirade.
Sorry. It’s what immediately popped into my head. That or some crazy with a two by four. For a couple of characters that are so well read, you’d think they’d know to go and act instead of standing around and hashing out their problems, proffering themselves up to go by the way of R&G.
Lol Love how you’ve broken the forth wall..
You teach that forth wall AE. =)