Carrier Bag Blueprints

 

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction is a foundational concept in literary and narrative theory, challenging dominant storytelling structures. She first articulated it in her 1986 essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, which was later widely referenced in discussions of feminist, speculative, and post-structuralist narrative theory. It builds on anthropologist Elizabeth Fisher’s Carrier Bag Theory of Human Evolution and applies it to fiction.

Core Ideas of the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction

1. Reframing the Narrative of Progress

Le Guin critiques the traditional “hero’s journey” structure, which centers around a single protagonist, conflict, conquest, and linear progress. She argues that this structure reflects patriarchal, colonial, and war-oriented worldviews, emphasizing dominance and resolution through force. Instead, she proposes an alternative model of storytelling that focuses on collective experience, gathering, and relationality.

2. The Carrier Bag as a Metaphor for Storytelling

• In contrast to the traditional image of early humans as hunters who wielded weapons, Le Guin highlights an overlooked aspect of human survival: gathering.

• The first tool, she suggests, was not a weapon but a carrier bag—a receptacle used to gather and transport food, seeds, and other resources.

• This metaphor extends to fiction: instead of the novel as a “weapon” (a linear tool of conflict and resolution), it can be a container that holds multiple perspectives, experiences, and meanings.

3. Fiction as a Gathering Space

• Rather than focusing on a single protagonist who “wins” through action, carrier bag fiction allows for multiple voices, fragmented experiences, and ongoing processes.

• It embraces open-endedness, ambiguity, and storytelling as a means of collecting and holding truths rather than delivering a single, decisive one.

• It is inherently anti-hierarchical, mirroring real human experience rather than distilling it into a singular heroic struggle.

Applications in Literature

Le Guin applies this theory to her own writing, particularly in her later works such as The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home. These books:

• Explore collective societies, rather than hero-centric narratives.

• Prioritize dialogue, adaptation, and coexistence over conquest and resolution.

• Resist traditional Western storytelling forms in favor of more organic, multi-perspective structures.

Impact on Feminist & Speculative Fiction

Le Guin’s theory has influenced feminist writers and theorists, including Donna Haraway, who expanded on it in Staying with the Trouble. It aligns with postmodern and post-structuralist critiques of dominant narratives, particularly those that privilege conflict, individualism, and linear progress.

It has also influenced:

• Eco-fiction, where the focus is on interconnected systems rather than individual battles.

• Afrofuturism and Indigenous storytelling, which often emphasize relationality, cyclical time, and collective memory.

• New narrative forms, including interactive fiction and fragmented, non-linear storytelling.

Why It Matters Today

The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction challenges dominant capitalist and patriarchal storytelling traditions, offering a more sustainable and ethical way to tell stories. It encourages writers to see fiction as a space for gathering, holding, and sharing rather than for domination and resolution. It remains a powerful lens for thinking about literature, politics, and alternative futures.

Carrier Bag Blueprint for Functional Communities

To create a Carrier Bag Blueprint for Functional Communities, we need to outline the key features that ensure the prosperity of all members in terms of body, emotions, mind, and spirit. This framework must balance baseline essentials (minimalist version) with adaptive flexibility (expanded version) to suit diverse cultures, settings, and narratives.

Core Principles of the Carrier Bag Community Blueprint

1. Interdependence Over Hierarchy

• The community functions as a web, where each role supports the others rather than a top-down command structure.

• Decision-making is participatory, ensuring collective well-being.

2. Sustainability & Regeneration

• The community focuses on balance with nature, replenishing what it uses.

• Long-term thinking replaces short-term exploitation.

3. Holistic Well-Being (Body, Emotion, Mind, Spirit)

• Every role contributes to a full spectrum of health, preventing burnout or imbalance.

4. Cyclical, Adaptive Structures

• Instead of rigid institutions, communities function through flexible, evolving systems that adjust to needs.

1. The Minimalist Carrier Bag Blueprint

(Baseline Essentials: Necessary Roles & Activities)

This is the most fundamental version—just enough to ensure survival and harmony. It consists of five primary domains:

1.1. Physical Well-Being (Body)

• Provider: Sources and distributes food, water, shelter materials (hunter, gatherer, farmer, builder).

• Healer: Maintains health through medicine, herbalism, and physical care.

1.2. Emotional Well-Being (Relationships & Stability)

• Caretaker: Ensures emotional and social stability (mediator, child-rearer, elder support).

• Gatherer of Stories: Holds community history, passing down knowledge and identity through oral tradition or other means.

1.3. Intellectual Well-Being (Knowledge & Skills)

• Toolmaker/Tinkerer: Maintains and innovates necessary tools and techniques.

• Teacher/Memory Keeper: Ensures knowledge is passed between generations.

1.4. Spiritual Well-Being (Meaning & Purpose)

• Guide/Philosopher: Provides wisdom, reflection, and ethical direction.

• Ritualist: Maintains practices that bond the group, marking life transitions, seasonal cycles, and communal events.

1.5. Social Cohesion (Decision-Making & Justice)

• Council/Consensus Facilitator: Ensures community decisions are balanced and inclusive.

• Mediator/Conflict Resolver: Keeps harmony and fairness without authoritarian force.

Each of these roles is fluid—people can shift based on ability, necessity, and life stage.

2. The Expanded Carrier Bag Blueprint

(Versatile, Unique & Culturally Adaptable Variants)

This allows for multiple variations of the core roles, making each community distinct.

2.1. Expanded Physical Well-Being (Body)

• Sustainers (Nourishers & Builders): Farmers, hydroponic growers, foragers, engineers, habitat designers.

• Healers (Medical & Psychological): Herbalists, acupuncturists, holistic therapists, trauma-informed caregivers.

• Movement Specialists: Physical trainers, dancers, martial artists ensuring bodily strength and agility.

2.2. Expanded Emotional Well-Being (Community Bonds)

• Story-Weavers: Musicians, poets, playwrights, mythmakers—keeping morale high through artistic expressions.

• Kinship Builders: Matchmakers, community hosts, people who create bonding rituals.

• Dreamkeepers: Those who study dream interpretation, emotions, and subconscious messages to guide the community.

2.3. Expanded Intellectual Well-Being (Innovation & Learning)

• Tech-Walkers: Those who balance technology with sustainability, ensuring innovation doesn’t disrupt the community.

• Philosopher-Engineers: Merging ethics with design, crafting systems that align with long-term well-being.

• Explorers & Archivists: Mapping new knowledge, archiving old wisdom, integrating the two.

2.4. Expanded Spiritual Well-Being (Culture & Rituals)

• Myth-Keepers: Those who safeguard narratives of meaning, ensuring past and future remain linked.

• Mystics & Ecologists: People who view nature as sacred, guiding harmony between humans and the land.

• Cycle-Watchers: Astrologers, seasonal trackers, omen readers—providing guidance based on long-term natural rhythms.

2.5. Expanded Social Cohesion (Governance & Justice)

• Conflict Alchemists: Trained in emotional intelligence and negotiation to prevent harm before it begins.

• Sanctuary Holders: Providing space for those in distress or transition, ensuring nobody is cast out.

• Civic Weavers: People who ensure fair representation, balancing different voices in the community.

3. How This Blueprint Generates Stories

(1) Minimalist Blueprint Stories

• Survival Under Pressure: A small group struggles to maintain the baseline blueprint after a collapse.

• Rebuilding After Disaster: The community must decide which core roles are prioritized first.

• The Strain of Imbalance: What happens when one of the essential roles is missing?

(2) Expanded Blueprint Stories

• Cultural Evolution: A community thrives by innovating unique roles, making them distinct from others.

• Intercommunity Relations: How does a carrier-bag society interact with hierarchical societies?

• The Challenge of Change: A new role emerges—does the society embrace it or resist it?

Conclusion

The Carrier Bag Blueprint for Functional Communities provides:

• A Minimalist Model (for essential survival and stability).

• An Expanded Model (for unique, flourishing cultures).

By applying these structures, we can craft stories that showcase sustainable, prosperous, and emotionally rich communities—offering a compelling counterpoint to conquest-driven narratives.

Quadrant Map : Heroes Journey / Carrier Bag, Exploitation / Harmony

To create a Quadrant Map of these contrasting approaches, we’ll structure it as follows:

1. The X-Axis represents the Narrative Structure:

• Left Side: Heros Journey (Individualistic, Conquest-Oriented)

• Right Side: Carrier Bag Theory (Collective, Sustenance-Oriented)

2. The Y-Axis represents the Human Relationship with Nature:

• Top Half: Exploitation (Resource Extraction, Domination)

• Bottom Half: Holistic Harmony (Sustainability, Regeneration)

Quadrant Map of Narrative Structure vs. Relationship with Nature

Hero’s Journey (Individual, Conquest) 

Carrier Bag Theory (Collective, Sustenance)

Exploitation (Domination, Extraction, Power Over Nature)

(1) Colonial Conquest Epics - The hero tames, dominates, or extracts from the world (e.g., Dune, Heart of Darkness). - Nature is an obstacle or enemy to be conquered.

(2) Industrial Utopias - The collective organizes for efficiency, but at the cost of sustainability (e.g., dystopian sci-fi like Brave New World, industrial communes). - The community functions but is extractive.

Holistic Harmony (Sustainability, Interdependence, Power With Nature)

(3) Warrior Stewardship - The hero becomes a protector of nature after struggle (Avatar, Mononoke, Moana). - Starts exploitative but shifts to regenerative values. 

(4) Regenerative Societies - The world exists in balance; the story explores maintenance of that balance (e.g., Always Coming Home, The Dispossessed). - Conflict comes from sustaining harmony.

Quadrant Breakdown & Story Types

Quadrant 1: Hero’s Journey + Exploitation (Conquest Over the Wild)

• The classic colonial or expansionist narrative.

• Hero subdues nature or other people for dominance.

• Example Stories: Dune, Beowulf, Heart of Darkness.

Quadrant 2: Carrier Bag + Exploitation (Efficient but Unsustainable Collectives)

• The community model is present, but it prioritizes industrial or technological progress without sustainability.

• Often seen in dystopian societies or rigid utopias.

• Example Stories: Brave New World, 1984, The Giver.

Quadrant 3: Hero’s Journey + Holistic Harmony (Protector of Nature)

• The hero starts exploitative or disconnected but learns to coexist with nature.

• Redemption and stewardship themes.

• Example Stories: Avatar, Princess Mononoke, Moana.

Quadrant 4: Carrier Bag + Holistic Harmony (Regenerative Societies)

• The story is about maintaining harmony rather than disrupting it.

• Nature and people exist interdependently.

• Example Stories: Always Coming Home (Le Guin), The Dispossessed, The Broken Earth Trilogy.

How This Quadrant Map Helps in Storytelling

• It provides a spectrum for world-building: Where does your society fall?

• It allows for conflict generation: Is a society struggling to shift quadrants?

• It offers a way to reframe heroism: Moving from conquest to stewardship or from industry to sustainability.