The reconstruction starts like this:

As I Lay Dying opens with Darl as the point-of-view character. Early on, it is established that Darl can <distance>DEF himself from even himself.

❝ Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file. Although I am fifteen feet ahead of him, anyone watching us from the cotton-house can see Jewel’s frayed and broken straw hat a full head above my own. ❞

The reconstruction follows the book. It will pick up elements from the text as it goes along and refer to them using referential terms.

How do I choose which elements ? I read the whole book before, and I picked up a book-wide narrative that is based on certain elements throughout the book. This is the narrative I want to share, because I find it remarkable. Whether that’s true for another reader depends on the reader. My goal is not to PROVE that I’m right (which would be as pointless as trying to prove that one’s taste is objectively better than another’s). It’s to share objective content that can be discussed and can enhance your reading of the content. We’ll see how that pans out.

The referential terms are denoted as <such>. <distance> references the quote, and particularly the quote in boldface: anyone watching us from the cotton-house can see. There’s nothing more to it. It’s a mnemonic. Since it’s the first time we encounter this concept of “distancing” (Darl speaks as if he can be in the head of someone else), there’s a DEF attached to <distance>, for better readability. There’s nothing to delve into, no deep meaning to decipher, we’re just preparing the groundwork for the developing narrative. In fact, the whole reconstruction will just be to pick up things along and correlate them, and that will be enough to create something.

Later, this concept of <distance> will be referenced. Many references will be made, creating a network of concepts. Every time a reference is made, the definition must be remembered along with its context. The context is the phrase that contains the definition. Here, the context is minimal. It’s the start of the book, basically.

T Clark, is everything clear to you ?

Another point: why do we use a special notation to denote referential terms ? Because otherwise, if later in the reconstruction I need to reference the concept, I would have to write something like “the distancing like the one we introduced earlier in the reconstruction, when Darl and Jewel were walking down the path to the cotton house”. The special markup allows me to be more concise.

Warning: the going will be slow. — thaumasnot

And long. Is the idea to lay bare the working parts of the functional dynamics of the story? So far:

anyone watching us from the cotton-house can see. — thaumasnot

you have universality, sensibility, locality, distance, perspective, possibility. An inventory of these, together with an indication of which are primary, would be interesting, but seeming an exhausting job to do.

No, we just reference the broad concept this passage suggests. As we only care about a certain narrative, it’s not the exact meaning of the concept that matters (otherwise it would be extremely tedious, I agree), but how it will be used. Please bear with me.

Conceptual reconstructionism in science? Mathematics?

Conceptual reconstructionism in science? Mathematics? — jgill

Yes it's possible. But I haven't tried it (I've only applied some of the principles to books about the philosophy of science/mathematics) and I don't think I would. But who knows?

T Clark doesn’t want to participate, so I’ll leave the thread, unless someone wants me to continue the reconstruction.

T Clark doesn’t want to participate, so I’ll leave the thread, unless someone wants me to continue the reconstruction. — thaumasnot

You are being petulant when you don't get the responses you want.

T Clark, is everything clear to you ? — thaumasnot

Not at all. As I told you previously, the links to the definitions on your website don't work for me. I'm using Chrome. Even if they did, I'm not sure it would make any difference.

Not at all. As I told you previously, the links to the definitions on your website don't work for me. I'm using Chrome. Even if they did, I'm not sure it would make any difference. — T Clark

The question “is everything clear to you” is for the post in this forum, not the website. In addition, I'm not sure how a technical problem on a website ties in with the question.

The question “is everything clear to you” is for the post in this forum, not the website. In addition, I'm not sure how a technical problem on a website ties in with the question. — thaumasnot

I've put quite a bit of effort into this discussion. It's been useful and interesting. It gave me a chance to dive deeper into the issues we've discussed. After that effort, I still don't understand the purpose or methods of your system. I'm a pretty smart guy, so I think that means your system needs work. Getting pissed and questioning my motives is not a good way to get me to participate.

I'm not interested in taking this any further at this time.

After that effort, I still don't understand the purpose or methods of your system. — T Clark

That's a bit ironic in the context of this thread, but your decision is totally fair. It was cool to discuss with you. I wish you the best.