Soon we will be talking about Harold and the Purple Crayon. One of the distinctions I want to make with Harold is that between the “object,” an important foundational term in new media. The distinction helps us understand what it is we’re talking about when we say the word “newspaper,” “text,” or “book.” In a few hours we’ll be talking about Harold and the Purple Crayon the Book: that is, the actual physical book or, in our case, Harold as digital presentation.
The other important object in the “book” is Harold “the character,” that object with whom the story is concerned, the hero of the story. Even more confusing is Harold “the story” and then Harold “the narrative.”
Hm, all this sounds a little over-confused, right? Not really. All of these elements have value as “distinctions.” The book is something we can open, store, sell, trade, and copy. Harold, the hero of the tale, provides some physical property to the story itself. We can follow him, remember him, watch him, and worry about him. In terms of the story, there would be no specific story without Harold, although there are many stories similar to Harold. Parents often worry about losing their children.
The narrative provides the structure for the story’s plot. We can follow the story because of the way it’s told. The beginning, the middle, the end. Or, its acts and scenes in their particular sequence.
We can, if we’re twisted, think about Harold’s story (lost boy finds his way home) as an object. For the time being, let’s lay that aside and go with decisions that are a little more obvious. Harold the Character is an object that is distinct from Harold the Book. Since this is so, we can talk about Harold the Book as an example of books in general, books as distinct objects that have nothing to do with their characters.
But what about Harold the Character? What sort of character is he? What sort of “boy” is he? What does Harold want? How does Harold react to the unforeseen?