What do 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end' mean in Butcher's Poetics VII, and what simple question does each definition give an outline?
In Butcher's VII a whole has a beginning, a middle and an end, defined by causal position: a beginning does not follow anything by causal necessity, an end follows something and has nothing after it, a middle follows and is followed. The rule drawn is that a plot must not begin or end at haphazard. A whole is also said to need magnitude (see -06). Three boundary questions for an outline are a proposal derived from the definitions.
In Butcher's VII a whole has a beginning, a middle and an end, defined by causal position: a beginning does not follow anything by causal necessity, an end follows something and has nothing after it, a middle follows and is followed. The rule drawn is that a plot must not begin or end at haphazard. A whole is also said to need magnitude (see -06). Three boundary questions for an outline are a proposal derived from the definitions.
Curator qualifications: Whole/beginning/middle/end by causal position; boundary questions are proposals.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
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- [sourced_fact] In Butcher's VII a whole has a beginning, a middle and an end, defined by causal position: a beginning does not follow anything by causal necessity, an end follows something and has nothing after it, a middle follows and is followed. The rule drawn is that a plot must not begin or end at haphazard. A whole is also said to need magnitude (see -06). Three boundary questions for an outline are a proposal derived from the definitions. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts source
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