"As a cultural form, database represents the world as a list of items and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and- effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events). Therefore, database and narrative are natural enemies. Competing for the same territory of human culture, each claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world. ... in the world of new media, the word "narrative" is often used as all-inclusive term, to cover up the fact that we have not yet developed a language to describe these new strange objects. It is usually paired with another over-used word - interactive. Thus, a number of database records linked together so that more than one trajectory is possible, is assumed to be constitute "interactive narrative." (lev manovich, database as a symbolic form)