I think of myself as a freelance cartoonist. But what that conjures up in the mind of many people, is the person using an entrainment frequency to capture attention and exploit that for political or religious purposes. Though that is not my intention, it seems an unavoidable condition of our society due to our history and ideas.
So when I thought of how to reach out to people who have this view of comics as an entrainment device, I thought of something I had read once by Ursula LeGuin, likening fiction and stories, generally, to entrainment technology. So I looked this bit of information up on Google Gemini and had it write this article for me. I think it covers the basics of why that comics are entrainment, but not in a paranoid, negative way. It is rather an uplifting and moving ceremonious entrainment that urges engagement between author and reader.
So I am taking this theory and using it to create new stories, to be written first as scripts, and then published here on this site as webcomics.
But here is the article.
from Google Gemini:
Ursula K. Le Guin used the scientific theory of entrainment as a metaphor for how humans build community through language and stories
. She explains that just as two pendulums near each other will eventually synchronize, human beings “get in sync” with each other through mutual conversation, creating a sense of shared rhythm and understanding.
This concept is part of her larger literary philosophy, which advocates for a re-examination of how we tell stories and define progress, most notably outlined in her 1986 essay, “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”.
Le Guin’s concept of entrainment
In her essay “Telling Is Listening” from The Wave in the Mind, Le Guin develops the idea of entrainment to explain the profound power of human conversation and storytelling.
- Communication is not a machine. Le Guin rejects the mechanical, “box A to box B” model of communication, where a sender simply codes and transmits information to a passive receiver.
- Communication is an intersubjective process. She argues that human communication is a “continuous interchange between two consciousnesses” where both the speaker and listener are active, mutual participants. The conversation is shaped by the anticipated response of the listener, and listening itself is an act of connection, not just a reaction.
- A biological model for connection. Drawing an analogy to amoebas exchanging genetic information, Le Guin proposes that people unite and exchange “inner bits of their bodies” (their consciousness) when they talk and listen to each other. This physical exchange creates a temporary “community of two”.
- The power of spoken words. This “mutual phase locking” is most potent in face-to-face speech. Sound is an “event,” and speech is a vital, physical process that creates a communal, intimate space among hearers. In this space, the power of each speaker is amplified by the entrainment of the listeners.
- Storytelling as ultimate entrainment. Great storytellers create this sense of mutual entrainment with their audience. By telling familiar stories in a fresh way, they “renew us” and “show us the world made new”. This shared experience fulfills both the teller and the listener, binding them together in a brief, fragile community.
Entrainment and “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”
Le Guin’s concept of entrainment reinforces the philosophy she put forward in “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” which challenges the “killer story” of heroic conflict and conquest.
- Instead of a narrative shaped like a spear—a linear, goal-oriented plot with a single climax—the “carrier bag” represents a story that is a receptacle.
- This type of story is non-linear and focuses on gathering, holding, and connecting diverse things.
- Entrainment, with its emphasis on mutual, rhythmic connection and community-building, is the perfect mode of communication for a carrier bag story. It provides a biological and social basis for a narrative approach that values nurturing and relationships over heroic conflict.