ABSTRACT
While the last phrase of the previous chapter—“they have the potential to change everything”—may have struck you as histrionic, bear in mind that you don’t hear many a child in industrialized nations proclaiming, “Mom, I want to be a bard.” By contrast, “Mom, I want to be a writer”—that’s pretty common. What’s reflected in that professional shift is a comprehensive redirection in the nature of narrative. Extended narrative, quite simply, no longer has its fundamental, long-term residence in the breath. How, consequently, for its construction, focus, and even purpose not to change?
