The Post Nonlinear Structure: The Hidden Desire’s Journey
The plot, in the four narrative structures, follows the Hero’s Journey template:
The protagonist, at the beginning of the story, wants (or does not want) to achieve something. Then an event makes him change his view of things. He starts a journey, and he needs to overcome trials to find himself. Through this journey, he discovers, voluntarily or indirectly, that there is a hidden desire, something that initially he did not know or accept as a part of him.
As an audience, we can often guess this hidden desire in the first minutes of the film, while the hero has no idea of what it is until the end.
The story is about the journey, the events and the problems the protagonist is facing, and in the end, his discovery of the hidden desire.
This Hero’s Journey follows a three-act structure.
As mentioned before, with the collapse of narrative in the early days of the 2000s (described by Douglas Rushkoff in his book Present Shock), this narrative structure and its elements started to be less effective.
Luke, Neo and all the heroes pre-collapse of narrative, does not have stories with an in-depth exploration of their inner desire. There is, but just as the goal, a tool, a hidden motivation, for the journey to start so that extraordinary things and challenges can happen. What is at stake is acceptance, the fact without their journey they will not be able to discover themselves.
Nowadays it is not compelling anymore to see how the protagonist can discover a hidden desire that he does not even know to have. We do not want to watch him struggle to find it while we already guessed it.
We want to understand his desire, discover why he needs to hide it and even why this desire was inside him in the first place. We want in-depth, psychological exploration of the topics related to his hidden desire, and still, have an entertaining narrative.
Therefore, a post-non-linear narration starts with the protagonist discovering his hidden desire, revealing the central theme of the story to the public.
Consequently, the protagonist does not change at the end of the story but in the beginning. The hidden desire is not the ultimate goal of the journey but the inciting incident that makes the story starts. The events and the problems the protagonist is facing during the story are an explicit exploration, for him and us, of his hidden desire, the central theme of the story and why he changed or why he does not want to. What is at stake is ignorance, the fact that without this journey inwards the protagonist will not be able to understand himself.
Walter White changes and becomes Heisenberg because, when he discovers to have cancer, he decides to embrace the hidden desire he had (to feel important, to feel in control of the situation).
“I did it for myself”, he reveals to his wife at the end of the series.
Knowing his hidden desires since the beginning of the series, makes him change and tries to live with it, to understand it. What we experience during all the five seasons is how and why he deals consciously with his hidden desire, how and why he tries to ignore it, to live with it and embraces it.
It is not a journey upwards but inwards.
Through their exploration, post-nonlinear heroes will find answers, but eventually, these will not be valid anymore.
Post-nonlinear heroes are not perfect; they do not know how to cope with the things that happen to them.
They evolve, they learn.
They are just like us.
To achieve this, we need time.
We have to see the protagonist challenged during his explorations for hours and weeks in many different situations. We need to watch the people around him questioned on the same topic and drew different conclusions.
Like in real life, there will not be a definitive answer at the end of this exploration. It is endless research for an answer when there is none.
Because of the longer time required to have a fulfilling exploration of the hidden desire, the post-nonlinear narrative structure consists of four acts.
It is important to notice that in serialized post-nonlinear narratives, like TV shows, the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc applies not just to the single episode arc, but also the whole season arc. Knowing the hidden desire and the central theme they want to explore, the writers plan the season as a single post-nonlinear narrative that follows the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc, with each episode representing an exploration of a specific step or steps of the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc itself.
Something similar was already used in the traditional serialized narratives, although each episode arc was more important than the whole season arc. The primary goal of these narratives is to follow the journey of the hero towards a discovery, instead of in post-nonlinear narratives the journey is an exploration towards an understanding. The thing that did not change is that after discovering or understanding something, the protagonist can change or not. The authors choose to do so to have the possibility to starts a new journey if the serialized narrative continues with a new season.
To understand how serialized post-nonlinear narratives works, I will make some examples.
First, let’s compare the first season of Friends with the first season of Grace & Frankie, both written by Martha Kaufman.
Friends’ first episode begins with all the character discovering something new about them. For example, Rachel moves to New York and realizes she needs to become more independent; Ross wants to have a chance with her high school crush, and Monica learns that she needs to be more careful to trust guys. They do not want to understand or explore why they want to do these things; there is something that happens to them that lead them to a discovery who pushes them in a new direction in their life.
The whole season arc is not a single narrative.
The main narratives are the individual, self-concluded, episodes that depict a series of events that lead to more discoveries. Even if you do not watch the whole season, you can still watch any episode and understands what is happening.
Grace and Frankie also start with a discovery, but this one leads to an exploration. After discovering that their husbands are gay and want a divorce, the two protagonists start to question who they are, why they are like this and what to do next. It is a journey towards understating their hidden desire, and each episode is a step forward. The season arc is a single narrative, with each episode depicting new events that lead to a new understanding and a new direction in their exploration. We have to watch each episode, one after the other, to understand what it is going on; otherwise, we will not be able to follow the plot.
Now, let’s look at the first season of Mr. Robot and Westworld.
Both of these post-nonlinear shows are an exploration into the hidden desire of their characters and the central theme related to it, but the progression and the point of view are different.
Let’s start by seeing how Mr. Robot first season progresses as a single post-nonlinear narrative that explores Elliot hidden desire and the topics related to it.
Act 1:
In the first three episodes, Elliot discovers his hidden desire to change the world affirms his true self. He then refuses it and later accepts to change the world guided by a mentor, entering the extraordinary world.
Act 2:
Elliot goes through a series of obstacles that makes him realize that he needs to act in a certain way to achieve what he wants. (Episode 4).
He considers how to proceed next and then faces new challenges, while the antagonist (Tyrell) gets closer to him. He then realizes something about his hidden desire to change the world and affirm his true self. (Episode 5).
This revelation leads him to doubts on how to proceed next. He decides to follow a direction that he discovers to be the wrong one, paying a high price for it. (Episode 6).
Act 3:
He goes through a crisis and tries to resolve it. (Episode 7).
He starts realizing the mistake he made while exploring his hidden desire (to change the world and affirm his true self), and starts to accept things for how they are. (Episode 8).
Act 4:
He understands why he wants to change the world and affirm his true self .(Episode 9),
He succeeds in changing the world, affirming his true self (Mr. Robot). Consequently, he discovers something new about himself , facing what is next for him. (Episode 10).
Mr.Robot’s narrative focuses extensively on the progression of Elliot’s Hidden Desire’s Journey arc, leaving the other character arc to a supporting role.
Westworld, on the other hand, focuses on the progression of all the character’s arcs, merging them to create to create a unique exploration of the hidden desire and the central theme of the series.
The first season of Westworld progression is:
• Act 1: Episode 1, 2 and 3.
• Act 2: Episode 4, 5, 6, and 7
• Act 3: Episode of 8 and 9
• Act 4: Episode 10
In this season, the authors explore and try to understand what does it means to be human, what defines us as such and how and why narrative is vital in this process. The character’s arc helps the audience to understand the central themes and the hidden desire explored in the series. In a process that recalls the android journey towards consciousness:
Consciousness isn’t a journey upward, but a journey inward, not a pyramid, but a maze. Every choice will bring you closer to center of send you spiraling to the edges, to madness.
It is remarkable what the screenwriters have done. Every dialogue, every event, tell something more about those themes. Like the brilliant dialogue in Episode 2. We are in the first act, the time of the revelation of the hidden desire and the central themes:
The guests don’t return for the obvious things we do. The garish things. They come back because of the subtleties, the details. They come back because they discover something they imagine no one had ever noticed before. Something they fall in love with. They’re not looking for a story that tells them who they are. They already know who they are. They’re here because they want a glimpse of who they could be.
Let’s take this dialogue as a metaphor to describe Westworld as a post-nonlinear narrative.
We are just like the guest of Westworld. We know who we are, tired fo the old narrative structure and forms talking about what it means to be human (Westworld’s central theme). We need Westworld’s screenwriters to use the post-nonlinear narrative structure because we do not want to experience an obvious, predictable exploration of this theme. We want a four-act Hidden Desire’s Journey story that explores what it means to be as humans, how we can change and why we want to.
However, we also are like the characters, because through the series we are making a journey inwards ourself to understand what the themes revealed by authors mean to us.
Another serialized post-nonlinear narrative characteristic is that the character story arc told in each episode can be independent of the main narrative arc, even though still representing a step of it.
To understand how this characteristic works, let’s compare once again Westworld and Mr.Robot, specifically the second episode of their first seasons.
Both episodes follow the second part of the first act, call to explore and refuse.
As I have shown before, Mr. Robot focuses primarily on Elliot facing these steps while the other characters give a different point of view on the central theme of the series.
In Westworld, on the other hand, each character develops its arc independently while at the same time it merges into a single narrative arc.
The screenwriter made this possible using time as a device to create meaning. We are experiencing events from different timelines as a single pot-nonlinear narrative following the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc.
All the character’s exploration develop following the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc on their own and on different timelines. Even if during a single episode every character is at a different point of their exploration, the meaning of each character arc represents a specific step of the season arc. (In episode 2 call and refuse to explore).
In Westworld, this happens with every single episode. While we follow a different arc developing independently and even on a different timeline, we comprehend which main narrative steps they represent collectively. Just towards the end of an act, each arc reaches the same phase.
Like in Episode 7, with almost every character going through the point of death.
Now let’s look at another serialized post-nonlinear narrative characteristics:
The Hidden Desire’s Journey arc can be adapted depending on the number of episodes, the meaning and the message the authors want to deliver.
Each episode does not represent strictly just one but also more steps of the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc
As an example, let’s have a look at the second season of American Horror Story.
It consists of 13 episodes, and the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc develops accordingly.
The show explores the central theme of if the evil is something we are born with or is something transmitted to us (by society, by genetics or some higher power). Therefore the authors take more time exploring specific steps of the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc instead of others.
Episode 7, for example, focuses extensively on exploring the point of death at the end of the second act and features the angel of death itself as the main character.
Also, since AHS it is a horror series, the author wants to explore the crisis of the character’s arc extensively, with episodes 8 and 9 focusing on this step of the arc.
Another example is the third season of Broadchurch, made of eight episodes, progressing like this:
• Act 1: Episode 1, 2 and 3.
• Act 2: Episode 4, 5 and 6.
• Act 3: The first 25 minutes of episode 7.
• Act 4: The last 20 minutes of episode 7 and episode 8.
Broadchurch screenwriters chose this structure because of the genre. Being a police thriller, Broadchurch requires more time to explore the trials of the exploration, the sudden revelations and the difficulties of discovering and accepting the truth (the central theme of the show). Therefore the crisis in the third act is shortened to give more space to the others.
Summarizing, in serialized post nonlinear narratives, the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc and each act, can be adapted deepening on:
The number of episode
The main topic
The genre
What the hidden desire and the central theme is
This adaptability allows the screenwriter to deliver the meaning in a compelling and satisfying way without compromising the narrative progression.
Now, we need to understand how post-nonlinear narratives deliver the meaning to the audience.
Let’s start by saying that nowadays we are good at understanding the meaning from narratives, especially audiovisual one.
During all of those years of watching movies and TV, we, as an audience, learned and internalized the semiosis of a narrative arc. Even if the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc develops in four acts and with new steps, our brain recognizes the patterns of the Hero’s Journey and the elements of the character’s story arc. There is always a beginning, a middle and an end, including the same plot points: crossing the threshold, midpoint revelation, point of death, and final discovery.
Moreover, because our brain can knit together everything we experience and create meaning, helped by symbols especially dialogue, time and visual hint.
In “Film Text Analysis- New Perspectives on the Analysis of Filmic Meaning,” different authors define those visual hints as Light, Space, Dynamic pattern, Visual narrative grammar, and Intermediality. In a future article, we will look at how post-nonlinear narratives exploit them. For now, it is essential to see the difference between how symbols worked before and how they do now.
Previously, symbols were used to support the Hero’s Journey towards a discovery, and the author used them as an extra element of the narrative, hints in the background to lead the audience to a more profound meaning of the central theme of the story.
In post-nonlinear narratives, symbols are not hints in the background but a fundamental element of the narrative to dive deeper into the exploration and the understanding of the hidden desire of the characters and the central topic of the story. Symbols have such an important role that their meaning does not need to be explained by the authors. It is the audience that has to entrain the proper associations and create meaning. This way, post-nonlinear narratives hook the audience, inviting to dive deeper into the story, to keep watching to understand the meaning of those symbols. Just like the post-nonlinear heroes, the audience is exploring the central theme of the story, trying to understand it’s meaning.
However since catharsis is a requirement to have a compelling, entertaining narrative, near the end of the main narrative arc, the author of post-nonlinear narrative needs to entrain the proper associations to those symbols, revealing meaning to the audience. Many things will still not explained, and others are left open to the audience interpretation to push the audience to come back for another season.
For this reason, audience dislikes the last season of TV-show; the authors try to entrain all the proper associations to the symbols they showed and often it won’t be as satisfying as expected because those differ from the associations the audience made while watching.
In summary, in the post-nonlinear narratives, the audience must be an active part in the process of creating meaning, and the less the author helps him while at the same delivering catharsis, the more the post-nonlinear narrative is compelling. For example, Westworld, Mr.Robot, Sex Education authors are good at doing this, while The OA and Homecoming authors less, making it less accessible and appealing to a broader audience.
Lastly, let’s see a post-nonlinear narrative made of two forms that follow the same Hidden Desire’s Journey arc.
Quantum Break, a videogame/tv show hybrid, consisting of 5 episodes that have an initial part were the audience plays as the protagonist and a final one where they watch the antagonist side of the story through a live action series. During the videogame part, the player can discover collectibles acting as symbols to expand the narrative, diving deeper into the exploration of the hidden desire and the central theme topic of the story. Also, they can shape the plot through choices that will affect the live action series. This merging of two forms is made possible by the fact that the post-nonlinear narrative structure and the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc requires an active, participating audience that creates meaning. Therefore it’s not difficult for the audience to shift from one form to the other while at the same time following the plot progression. Also, because of this successful merging, the narrative is more immersive, more compelling and more entertaining.
In conclusion, we can say that the post-nonlinear structure follows the Hidden Desire’s Journey because it allows authors to deliver meaning more compellingly and entertainingly. In this process of exploring and understanding the hidden desire and the central theme, the audience is not passive, but active, helped by the authors when catharsis is needed.
The adaptability of the Hidden Desire’s arc makes the post-nonlinear narratives suitable for any narrative form, like video games, tv shows, on-demand content, movies, books, and more.
Moreover, the Hidden Desire’s Journey arc helps to defeat the narrative collapse that affects our society, debating around topics that are close to the problems we are facing in our society.
The Post-Nonlinear Narrative structure articles summary:
