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1, 2, 3, 4 Futures—Ludic Forms in Narrative Films

Fictional worlds attract the attention of debaters in particular when they are supposed to activate the viewers’ reflections in a special way. Thus, movies that are most likely to irritate the audience and seem to animate people to reflect on their own personality and life are of major interest. In the following, I want to discuss a certain type of movie that meets these criteria: forking-path or multiple-draft narratives. On the one hand they rely on well-known narrative schemata, and on the other hand they comprise something that is actually impossible: alternative futures. One central thesis raised by spokespersons of the forking-path-debate claims that, when the narration of a movie triggers alternative trajectories or alternative futures, it is also very likely to stimulate alternative interpretations. My contribution to the debate will be the introduction of what I call “morphologic observation.” This way of analyzing narratives is meant to answer critics who would rightly ask for systematic grounds of interpretation, since the common flaws of hermeneutics are known. I want to introduce a type of systematic monitoring focused on the narrative structures of films. I will argue that multiple-draft narratives are often augmented with ludic forms that come with their own game-logics, and thereby trigger certain types of interpretative questions. Furthermore, the ludic forms are used as devices that provide for coincidence and determination. Hence this article is focused on the interdependencies of ludic forms and narrative contexts by dwelling on the dichotomy of coincidence and determination.