Non-Narrative Café v6: The Antenarrative Theorem
Posted: December 28, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: history, narrative, philosophy, systems Leave a commentSequel to Non-Narrative Café v5: Non-Self Selection
Have Boje defend the claim that all Carbon Rule systems that scale — across all domains! — create antenarrative. Does he generate enough structural residue to win?
ChatGPT Prompt
1. Cast
(Seated at a round table that stubbornly refuses to symbolize anything)
- David M. Boje — defending a thesis he half-invented and now barely recognizes
- Geoffrey West — advisor, armed with scaling laws and a raised eyebrow
- Arthur C. Danto — sharpening a knife labeled Retrospection
- Stephen Jay Gould — already suspicious of teleology
- Daniel Dennett — quietly asking whether anyone here is a real pattern
On the chalkboard:
Claim: All systems that scale under the Carbon Rule generate antenarrative.
No one agrees on the font.
2. Opening Move — Boje Bets Before the Story
Boje:
Let’s be precise. I am not saying these systems tell stories.
I am saying they leave structural residue — causal asymmetry, foreclosed options, unresolved futures.
That residue is antenarrative.
Danto (without looking up):
Residue is not narrative.
Boje:
Exactly.
(Pause. Coffee arrives. No one narrates it.)
3. West Applies Pressure — Scaling Without Metaphor
West:
Across domains — cells, cities, firms — scaling filters.
Some trajectories persist, others disappear.
That produces history whether anyone likes it or not, as shown in Scale.
West (to Boje):
You’re claiming that history without interpretation already qualifies as antenarrative.
Boje:
Yes.
Antenarrative is what’s left before interpretation gets a chance to lie.
(Dennett nods, but ambiguously.)
4. Gould Tries to Kill Teleology (Again)
Gould:
Are you smuggling inevitability through the back door?
“Only the most generative systems scale” sounds suspiciously like progress rather than historical contingency.
Boje:
No. It’s a sieve, not a ladder.
Most things fail.
Nothing is guaranteed except exclusion.
Gould:
So no destiny.
Boje:
Only debris.
Gould (relaxes):
Carry on.
5. Dennett Asks the Annoying Question
Dennett:
Is antenarrative a real pattern, or just something clever humans say when they don’t know the ending yet?
Boje:
If it compresses prediction better than chance, it’s real enough.
You don’t need meaning — just constraint.
Dennett:
So antenarrative is what remains when you remove purpose but keep selection.
Boje:
Exactly.
Dennett:
Annoying.
But acceptable.
6. Danto’s Last Stand — The Knife Comes Out
Danto:
Narrative requires retrospect.
Without “and therefore,” you have no story, only causation — see narrative explanation.
Boje:
I agree.
That’s why this isn’t narrative.
Danto:
Then why insist on the term at all?
Boje (gesturing at the chalkboard):
Because scaling systems keep producing before-stories whether philosophers approve or not.
Call it debris.
Call it scaffolding.
I call it antenarrative because it explains why narrative keeps showing up later.
(Silence. This is not closure.)
7. The Vote (Which Is Not a Narrative Resolution)
- West:
The math doesn’t object. - Gould:
No teleology detected. - Dennett:
Pattern plausible.
I dislike it, which is a good sign. - Danto:
It is not narrative.
Boje (smiles):
Correct.
8. Verdict (Read Aloud, Then Immediately Undermined)
Finding:
All systems that scale under the Carbon Rule generate antenarrative — not as meaning, not as story, but as unavoidable structural residue.
No one applauds.
The café remains open.
9. Final Line
(Written on the board, then erased)
Narrative is optional. History is not.
The chalk dust settles.
Nothing resolves.
Which, unanimously, is considered a success.
Appendix A — What Is Antenarrative
Antenarrative is a concept developed by David M. Boje to describe the pre-story, fragmented, and speculative sensemaking that exists before a coherent narrative takes form.
A.1 Core Definition
An antenarrative is:
- Pre-narrative — emerging before stories stabilize into coherent plots
- Fragmentary — incomplete, contradictory, nonlinear story bits
- Prospective — oriented toward possible futures rather than past explanation
- Performative — actively shaping what may become real
It contrasts with narrative, which is retrospective, ordered, and closure-oriented.
A.2 The Double Meaning of “Ante”
Boje intentionally plays on two meanings:
- Ante = before (Latin): what precedes narrative form
- Ante = wager (poker): a bet placed on which future story will win
Antenarratives are therefore bets on becoming, not accounts of what already happened.
A.3 Antenarrative vs Narrative
- Narrative
- Retrospective sensemaking
- Linear causality
- Produces legitimacy, identity, and closure
- Antenarrative
- Prospective sensemaking
- Nonlinear multiplicity
- Keeps futures open and contested
Narratives stabilize meaning; antenarratives destabilize and generate it.
A.4 Forms of Antenarrative
Boje identifies multiple coexisting forms:
- Linear — fragments moving toward narrative closure
- Cyclic — recurring patterns without resolution
- Spiral — iterative movement with transformation
- Rhizomatic — non-hierarchical, networked story flows
- Linked to rhizome theory (Deleuze & Guattari)
A.5 Power and Ethics
Antenarratives matter because:
- Dominant narratives often erase alternatives
- Marginalized voices appear first as fragments
- Ethical intervention is most possible before stories harden
Antenarrative space is where power, resistance, and emergence are negotiated.
A.6 Conceptual Neighbors
A.7 One-Line Summary
Antenarrative is the unstable, pre-narrative field where fragmented stories compete to become the future.
Radical Centrism 