Actions

  The above discussion of entities describes a static world. Objects exist and are describable, but they do not ``do'' anything. Still, the idea of functions alludes to a dynamic element in the world. This is captured by a world entity known as action. The   function of an action is to transform one state into another. Consider:

John is at the house $\Rightarrow$ John is at the store

The two ``is at'' descriptions are states which describe attributes of John. In the above example, a transformation has occurred which shifts from the first state to the second state. This transformation is an action. It could be one of any number of possible actions:

• John walked to the store.
• John was taken to the store by Bob.
• Aliens teleported John to the store.
• A catapult was used to throw John to the store.

Since each of these represent a transformation from one state to another, then walking, taking, teleporting, and throwing are all actions. In addition to possessing the required   function attribute, actions will need to have some description of what agent is causing the action. Remember that agents have the ability to initiate activity; to understand an action it is necessary to understand what entity caused it to occur.

Western literature has a tradition of presenting stories as series of actions. A large set of states is established for the reader; members of this set are then altered by the actions which are described in the story.   In Lycanthrope, the two friends are arguing, they send off for the book on witchcraft, they do research at the university, and so forth. The author is describing the events which happen to the characters; the interaction of the expected events and the surprising ones lead to the suspense which the author is able to build. To comprehend a story, then, a reader will need to understand the individual actions which occur, to understand the state transitions which they produce, and to comprehend how they interact. In order to understand the actions, the reasoner will need to understand the objects and agents which participate in those events. Finally, to understand the objects and agents, a reader will have to understand the states which describe those. If this interlocking set of understandings occur successfully, the story can be successfully comprehended. This idea will be returned to in the next chapter when I present the framework of the reading theory and in Chapter 6 when I present the core of the understanding process.