Peter Kirby

Story A has fictional elements 1, 2, 3, 4.

Story B has fictional elements 3, 5, 6.

Story C has fictional elements 1, 2, 4.

*** Just-so explanations about A, B, C (not a comprehensive list): ***

A expanded C. B selected part of A and added more.

C compressed A. B selected part of A and added more.

A expanded from B and C. B and C are independent.

A expanded C. B is independent.

C compressed A. B is independent.

C compressed A. A selected part of B and added more.

A, B, and C are independent.

*** Some concreteness for those who need it ***

(1) There once was a pig who built a house of straw.
(2) There once was a pig who built a house of wood.
(3) He huffed, and he puffed, and he blew the houses down.
(4) There once was a pig who built a house of brick.
(5) And the little dog laughed to see such sport.
(6) And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Assume that the stories are told with variety such that verbal similarity cannot be detected, only similarity of narrative structures.

*** What am I on? ***

I'm trying to figure out the logic by which similarities between stories let us figure out anything. Any comments that help the method of moving FROM similarity between stories TO some kind of understanding, would be a boon.

Huon

I shall give you a naïve answer :
The reader has to do a textual analysis of the elements. Some elements are logically earlier than some other elements. Some elements are completely independent.

In your example :

From Story C (1, 2, 4).

Elements 1, 2, 4, are "parallel".

From Story A (1, 2, 3, 4).

Element 3 follows the "parallel" Elements 1, 2. Element 4 follows Element 3.
This structure somehow breaks the "parallelism" of Elements 1, 2, 4.

From Story B (3, 5, 6).

Element 5 could follow Element 3, OR could be completely independent.
Element 6 seems completely independent.

From the order of the elements in the stories :

It seems that in Story A, Element 3 happens too early,
OR that Element 4 has been added awkwardly, simply to show the existence of a difference between Element 4 and the other two Elements (1, 2).
Perhaps Story A was copied from Story C with the addition of Element 3,
OR perhaps Story C was copied from Story A with the suppression of Element 3.

Another interpretation :

Element 4 has been added to Story A and Story C, later, and comes from an unknown source (let us call it Story Q).


After a deeper research, these three stories belong to a recently discovered DVD, called Salt Lake City DVD 52, which contains a long time lost Story, usually called gMickey, sometimes mentioned in records of the second half of the XXth century. No carbon 14 analysis is possible on a DVD.The possible dating of the DVD 52 from its style is 1930-2000 (reliability 3/5).

GMickey shows a strong docetic tendency. At first glance, its characters seem to be strange animals, but it is easy to understand that these animal shapes are illusions, and that the deeper meaning of the story is purely spiritual.

GMickey could have been recorded by one or two authors, called Disney, and Walt.
However, some scholars say that this story goes back to a tale which was already popular in England in the XVIIIth century. But their opinion about "the three little pigs" is disputed.