In my Eternal Search for the Organized Mind, I put together some notional ideas of Venn Diagrams for the Kerth Categories. Some may want to just throw their hands up now, but others may find this intersting, and maybe even helpful.



For those not used to these things, the amount of overlap between the circles indicates the amount of common ground of A and B plot. They are not to be taken too literally, but are notional. A story 50% A and 50% B would have the circles overlap each other. For example, for Best Relationship, the second group is all B with a little A peeking out. The diagram is changed. I also added a B alone to Holiday and Special Occasions.

Artemis

Interesting, Artemis!

One quibble, though: A-plot in Holiday/Special Occasion? I tend to see that as a category where stories are usually WAFFy, either a PWP puppies-and-kittens Christmas-tree-type story or a WAFFy (perhaps with a mild amount of angst) relationship story. Certainly mainly fluff. I don't think it ever occurred to me that an A-plot would be present at all, let alone essential...


Wendy

Very interesting, Artemis!

I agree with Wendy. When I think of holiday/special occasion stories, I generally think of pure, sickeningly sweet, completely waffy stories. I wouldn't consider an A plot to be at all essential in any way in these stories. I'd almost rather *not* have an A plot at all.

- Laura (avid hater of all things A plot)

Wonderful, Artemis! You've really summed up my interpretation of the Kerth categories.

Now, how in the world did you make these and post them?



Lynn

May I just say ...

I.
Love.
This.
Fandom.

Artemis, I bow down before you. Just the fact that you spent time doing this makes you my hero.

Kathy

Ditto Kathy.

Mirage

Wow, thank you all! To answer questions:
1. A plot in Holiday/Special Occasion. To me, there is an A plot by definition because it involves a specific Holiday. The author must say enough to let us know it is Valentine's Day, Christmas, or Groundhog Day. It may have mostly Waffy feelings, but the plot has to involve some detail of the Holiday. Getting presents for Valentine's Day, buying a tree at Christmas. That's enough for me to call it an A-plot, and yeah, it's just a little bit of one. So call it the tiny motor that propels the story forward. And I understand I differ from some on my interpretation of an A-plot here.
2. How did I do this? On Powerpoint, my favorite graphics program. It's part of Microsoft Office for Windows and I use it a lot. The little circles are one of the "Autoshapes". I create the masters on top and then duplicate them throughout. Then there's tricks on lining stuff up, etc. I print it, then scan it and post it to folcsite. I did Nan's Superman's geneology for her Home stories the same way.
I'll add the all B-plot symbol for Best Drama.

Artemis

Artemis wrote:
Now, one part of me is going:

JM

I see where you're coming from, Artemis, but that's not an A-plot, surely? It's simply scene-setting, isn't it? In the same way as Kathy's Momentum II - an entirely B-plot story - includes scene-setting in that Lois and Clark are going to the mountains on a skiing holiday?

I haven't been involved in the discussion on the definition of an A-plot, in this folder and on the poll thread, but as I understand it an A-plot is considered to be the action/mystery/suspenseful/dramatic/dangerous plot in the story or episode - the catching the bad guys, or finding out what's making Clark sick, or dealing with the trauma of Lois's attack plot. That's why I was so surprised to see A-plot included as essential in that category.

Otherwise, fascinating!


Wendy

Artemis, I am in awe. And, to quote Kathy: I did wonder about the lack of C and U in the mostly WAFFy stories and comedies. Surely C is automatic with *any* story that uses elements from the show? Unless C specifically means ep adaptation rather than reference to ep elements...?

Regarding the Holiday/SO, I would agree with your diagram there, but not with your reasoning for it. Like Wendy, I don't equal setting with A-plot. But unlike Laura, I *don't* think that H/SO is only purely WAFFy. This year specifically includes two alt stories that are definitely H/SO and definitely include an A-plot, for example. I don't care much for H/SO in the first place, so I'm not the best judge of the category; but I agree with your diagram as you've designed it, Artemis.

Venn diagrams in LnC... ~happy sigh~ I really do love this fandom.

Wow Artemis, this is really cool and useful - now, I'm a bit less confused by all the Kerth categories.

The mathematician in me needs to point out a venn diagram with 4 components looks like this:

May be this will be useful for the diagrams in the Best Drama and Best Elseworld categories.

Cheers,
Simba (who loves Venn diagrams)

Hi JM. Yes, I'm OCD too
LOL Simba. That is one colorful Venn diagram. However my humble Powerpoint doesn't do it that way. I grew up in a very 2D world and as long as the circles intersect each other, all is well in the world.
I added B only to Holiday/Special Occasion. (The new diagram simply replaced the old, so look at it again.) Yeah, I guess you could just say "Lois didn't like Christmas" and that would be the scene setting. But like Hazel said:
I loved Momentum II, but I consider the whole skiing thing an A-plot. There were no bad guys, but Lois and Clark interacted with the world and I learned something about skiing.
I guess some would think the "World Tour" story had no A-plot because it was simply about Lois and Clark enjoying places in the world. But I considered it did. Not a lot of A, but some anyway. That's why I was surprised Yvonne said she couldn't write A plots, because I think she has. Some of her settings are beyond complex and they definitely included bad guys.
Hazel said:
My take on that is that the story must involve things from specific episodes to have a C-element. That is clear in the Best Episode Adaptation. In other cases where is a character's characteristic (Lois doesn't cook, has fear of commitment, etc) it's not a specific C-element. But yes, there certainly could be Christmas in an alt-universe (Nan just wrote one). But I didn't include it in H/SO because it's not required to be there.
But, as I said, this is notional. Not all permutations are covered. All categories would look like Simba's picture and there would be no information to help us think of the differences.
I got more feedback than I thought I would and thank you very much!

Artemis

I am totally saving this for the next time some student asks me how science/math will help them in life!


Also, is it just me, or with the new additions does the overall image look a bit like the upraised fist statue from "Meet John Doe"?

Hmmm. I didn't notice that, Rivka, but it does! But I swear I'm not John Doe!

Artemis