Living in Spin

All the hard questions about human action
are about what to include in a story,
what can be left out,
and how to characterize what gets included.
A narrative selects from all the world's motions
which ones are part of or relevant to an act,
and so narratives give us
what narratives have already shaped:
the relation is circular.
Many narratives can be told of an act,
not all consistent.
Some features of human action:
- events "off-stage"
determine what's happening "on-stage";
- many actions ``pass through'' motions in view;
- an act can be changed after the fact;
- action presupposes language;
- what an act is can be highly ambiguous;
- we judge acts (and narratives)
because we have a stake in them.