Structuralism Lives

Last month French theorist Claude Lévi-Strauss celebrated his 100th birthday with worldwide felicitations including good wishes from poet Pierre Joris and journalists at NPR. As a graduate student, I wrote an encyclopedia entry about the famed structuralist and anthropologist and was impressed with his generosity in responding to queries and gently augmenting the piece.

Despite its advanced age, the structuralist legacy that Lévi-Strauss's life represents remains relevant for those who use computational media to create interactive narratives, since -- even though he complained of the destructive effects of Western technologies -- what could be called Lévi-Strauss's unit operations way of seeing the world can still be applied to creating cultural narratives and ways of knowing.