Muttering to myself about Being and Becoming

theory
1

being is what separates you from becoming

being a certain way means not being other ways

being cocky
being overly confident
being pathologically fearful

some dominant way of being or attitude that people think of when they see you, Dwight Swain’s notion of dominant impression, how do people sum you up when they meet you?

being loud and overbearing
being timid and giggly

there is always a gap between being and becoming
between inauthentic mask put on to hide yourself (Batman)
and a mask put on to reveal yourself (Joker)
Although best Batman stories realize that Wayne is the disguise

being means wanting to be something else and putting on characteristics

becoming means shedding characteristics that are not that self

if you are selfish you must stop being selfish and become generous

1 Like
2

The problem with Being and Becoming is that they are synonyms in the English language. I liken Becoming and Being to the Spanish verbs Ser and Estar.

  • Becoming --> Ser
  • Being --> Estar

From Wiktionary: “Like Portuguese and Spanish, Galician has two different verbs that are usually translated to English as “to be”. The verb ser relates to essence, origin, or physical description. In contrast, the verb estar relates to current state or position.”

There is not a 100% correlation, but close. The above describe the state definition, but not the process definition. The process versions emphasize the transition of one state to another (for either of them).

For example:

  • The process of becoming might be a man turning into an animal (physical description example)

  • The process of being might be going from hot to cold (current state example).

9 Likes
3

Very elegant. Making notes on it, thanks.

1 Like
4

Although I’ve been told that appreciations get less tightly bound to being Internal/External as you get further from Domain, I thought Being was about mental stuff like going from feeling happy to sad rather than external like hot to cold (something like being in danger from an intense heatwave, for instance, sounds like a Situation-- external state). Otherwise, why is Being under Psychology at all if it can be encoded as internal/external, state/process?

I’d assumed that physical examples of Becoming were under Psychology because they’d have a psychological effect on the Becoming person (turning into an animal would likely force the character think like an animal or adapt), but I guess it doesn’t matter?

5

You’re correct, which is why I was not redefining Dramatica’s use of Being and Becoming, but pointing to the difference BETWEEN Being and Becoming.

Being “hot” need not be about being hot to the touch, but feeling hot. (“Charlie looks hot tonight.”) The point is that being is about the transitive nature of something; it’s momentary condition. Becoming is about the nature of something. (“Charlie doesn’t even know how hot he is.”)

1 Like
6

Oh, ok. I got that from the ser/estar explanation.