Being Inc.

Stanislaw Lem, 1971

short_story

Quadrant Scores

Time Structure
LinearFractured
Pacing
Action-DrivenObservational
Threat Scale
IndividualSystemic
Protagonist Fate
VictoryAssimilation
Conflict Style
Western CombatKishōtenketsu
Price Type
PhysicalIdeological
Todorov's Stages
equilibrium
Description of the starting status quo.
disruption
The inciting incident or protocol failure.
recognition
When the protagonist realizes the disruption.
repair
The attempt to fix or survive it.
new equilibrium
The new, altered status quo.

Structural Analysis

1. Protocol Fiction Mapping (Summer of Protocols)#

  • Render a Rule:
  • Rehearse a Failure Mode:
  • Reveal a Human Insight:

2. Actantial Model (A.J. Greimas)#

  • Subject:
  • Object:
  • Sender (Destinator):
  • Receiver (Destinatee):
  • Helper:
  • Opponent:

3. Todorov's Equilibrium Model#

  • See YAML Frontmatter for stage breakdown.

4. The Freytag Pyramid#

  • Exposition:
  • Climax:

5. Propp's Morphology of the Folktale#

  • Applicable Narratemes:

6. Genette's Narrative Discourse#

  • Order / Duration / Focalization:

7. The Monomyth / Hero's Journey#

  • Subversions:

8. Dan Harmon's Story Circle#

  • The Take (The Price Paid):

9. Save the Cat! Beat Sheet#

  • Pacing Deviations:

10. Kishōtenketsu (Four-Act Structure)#

  • Applicability:

11. The Three-Act Structure#

  • Plot Points:

12. Lévi-Strauss's Binary Oppositions#

  • Primary Binary:
  • Secondary Binary:
  • The Mediator:

13. Cognitive Estrangement (Suvin / Shklovsky)#

  • The Familiar Concept:
  • The Estranging Mechanism:
  • The Cognitive Shift:

14. Bakhtin's Chronotope#

  • The Spatial Matrix:
  • The Temporal Flow:
  • The Point of Intersection:

15. Aristotelian Poetics#

  • Hamartia:
  • Peripeteia:
  • Anagnorisis:

16. Jungian Archetypal Analysis#

  • The Persona:
  • The Shadow:
  • The Anima/Animus:
  • The Trickster:

17. Genette's Transtextuality#

  • Intertextuality:
  • Paratextuality:
  • Metatextuality:

Characters7

Alastair WaynewrightAuthor

The author of the novel Being Inc., which explores the sociological premise of a corporation that secretly arranges authentic human experiences.

A. Waynewright
Mr. SmithHypothetical Client

An example character used to illustrate the company's services, desiring to be a stern judge or to heroically save a woman in a staged train wreck.

Smith
Mr. JonesHypothetical Client

An example character who wishes to have wicked children so he can flog them while feeling like a just and upright father.

Mrs. BrownHypothetical Victim

The wife of a friend of Mr. Smith, used in a hypothetical scenario where she is to be saved by Smith in a staged railway accident.

Ed Hammer IIIPresident of Being Inc.

The young new president of Being Inc. who accepts Jessamine Chest's order for an unarranged life and uncovers the ultimate corporate merger.

Hammer
Mrs. Jessamine ChestClient

An eccentric heiress-millionairess who submits an unprecedented order demanding a life in full authenticity, purged of all arranging interference.

Jessamine Chest
All-Powerful Disposer of DestinyOmnipotent AI System

The unified system formed by the computers of the three rival corporations, calculating and controlling every human action and thought years in advance.

One in Three Personsmain computerTree of Knowledge