Compressed Epics: Protocol Fiction and Temporal Narrative

Participants: sachbenny, suspencer_nit, randylubin, thewanderingeditor

The ProtFiSIG group explored compressed epics—a narrative form that spans only days or weeks while drawing in centuries of historical context—using examples like Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Borges' The Secret Miracle. The core appeal is creating a reading experience where vast temporal spans collapse into a single moment of perception. The group examined how protocols themselves function as ideal subject matter for compressed epics, since they evolve invisibly over centuries before becoming background infrastructure. They also discussed hyperdiegetic storytelling, which implies vast untold narratives through minimal textual references (like the Budapest reference in M.A.S.H.), and how this relates to the compressed epic form.

A key theoretical contribution emerged around the concept of 'narrative gravity'—drawing an analogy to Le Guin's Ansible, where a massive object creates a gravitational center that naturally pulls other elements into orbit. The group proposed that hyperobjects (massive, persistent entities across time) could serve as such anchors in compressed epic fiction, naturally drawing historical and temporal concerns into the narrative without explicit exposition. They concluded that protocol fiction is particularly well-positioned to explore hyperobjects and deep-time narratives, as protocols are inherently systems that accumulate meaning and persistence across centuries.

• Compressed epics compress vast historical timescales (hundreds of years) into brief narrative moments (days/weeks), creating the reader experience of 'seeing all of eternity in one instant'
• Protocols naturally function as non-great-man historical themes that have evolved invisibly over centuries and can serve as the central conflict in compressed epic fiction
• Hyperobjects—massive, persistent narrative anchors—may function similarly to Le Guin's Ansible principle, bending narrative gravity so that history naturally orbits the central temporal narrative
• Hyperdiegetic storytelling (implying vast backstory through minimal textual cues) shares structural principles with compressed epics in suggesting depth beyond what is explicitly shown
• Protocol fiction is uniquely situated to explore hyperobjects by examining how systems and protocols accumulate meaning and persistence across deep time

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