Downs Reflection- Week 3

"The world is a set of stories which must be chosen among."

  After thinking about our other readings this week, I have to say I agree with Fisher here. I'm not sure we could escape the narrative (as defined by Abbott) if we tried. Sitting here, my windows are open--it's a beautiful day. My facebook feed is of snow. In this way, I am a part of that narrative. I could choose not to be; to isolate myself from the story (I can quit anytime I want?) but then I wouldn't know the story. I could travel through space and time like Abbott describes, or do the internal/external work Todorov explores. We can edit our everyday. In this way, I think we choose. 
  However, there are two ideas here that I'm not so certain about. First, that there is a world made up of a set of stories and second that we must choose among them. But isn't that everything in the quote? Not yet! Maybe I have my own world and I have constructed it; it may be a set of stories, but they're constantly in flux with other stories and with each other. I think we have to watch out for static implications. If narrative is story+ narrative discourse, can't we also break narrative discourse down to the way the story is told to us and interpreted by us?
  The second idea that we must choose implies that we can choose. In my experience, we don't get to choose the story as it happens. In a bookstore it's pretty cut and dry, we can pick one up or not, but what about in the hallway? Then, aren't there the stories we wouldn't choose because we don't want them to make-up our world but they are real? I think journaling is an interesting therapeutic technique; I've been encouraged to do it many times. To some extent, it does help. There, in my story, I get to choose how it goes--but what about before the story? What about the things that we tell stories about... how do we choose those? Are they open for our consideration in narratology?