Story tags

A lot of the examples of stories that Cowen gives are really just story tags. What's a story tag? It's a word or phrase that identifies a type of story.

Words are not things. When I say the word "table" I do not have to have a picture of a table in my head or even be thinking of or even be aware of all the possible examples of tables. I use the word when it is appropriate for the particular activity I am doing. "Set the table for dinner please." "Please check the figures in this table against the source." "I'd like to table this motion."

So it is with "story". And so it is with types of stories. "Rags to riches" is not a story it's a tag that identifies a whole lot of stories of a particular type.

Here is how tags work. Think of "table". You come to visit me and while I am opening the wine I say, "Go take a look at the table I bought today, it's in the back room." And you go confident that you will no trouble figuring out which piece of furniture to look at. You aren't going to spend a half hour studying the wing chair by mistake. But you also have no idea what the table will be. You don't know what colour it is, you don't know what it is made of, you don't know if it has three, four five or six legs and you don't know if it's a table to eat off or one to put knick knacks on.

The same is true if I say, I am going to tell you a rags to riches tale. You have to sit and listen to the story to know what it is.