Tuesday 28 May 2024
A cosmic playwright
About this time much interest was aroused in what has been called the "woman question." The famous Norwegian male blue-stocking had written a play on the subject, and all feeble minds were obsessed by a perfect mania of finding oppressed women everywhere.
August Strindberg - The Confession of a Fool (1893)
It is still mildly surprising to be reminded of a cultural fad which is not a fad at all, but much older than a fad ought to be. A chap could easily go on to imagine that somewhere out there in the mysterious depths of the Unknown there is a cosmic playwright recycling old plays for us to perform.
Old plays with new titles perhaps, but old plots, old characters with new names and plenty of cheaply updated scenery. Apart from that it’s the same old plays where even the script is merely an updated version of the original.
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4 comments:
It's probably an inherited survival technique. If a creature in a group squawks while looking in one direction, the rest of the group will squawk and look in that direction. That's where the danger is coming from, or where the food might be. Now, the dangers are few and far between, but the little shot of dopamine still keeps coming. The result is moral panics (the danger) and advertising (the food).
We need to look at what the others are looking at, but not take it seriously. If we keep an open mind, we will see that most people are in trouble because they are wearing blinkers and have fixed on the object or issue without reflecting on whether it is worth it.
Sam - that's it, pointing squawkers describes them well. As you say, it probably is an inherited survival technique where we have to take at least some note of alarm calls whether they are immediate or some way off.
It is disconcerting to realise how animal-like we are, but we must be because that's what we are.
It's been argued by Christopher Booker (not without dissent) that there are only 7 basic story types:
1) Rags to Riches
2) The Quest
3) Rebirth
4) Overcoming the Monster
5) Comedy
6) Tragedy
7) Voyage and Return
The argument goes that there are notably recurrent character types, story lines, or events and using these archetypes promotes a sense of familiarity with audiences.
I guess you could play archetype bingo with all the electioneering speeches and bumf. Tragedy or Comedy? Tough call.
DJ - I've seen one or two similar claims with various numbers, but there does seem to be something in it. I'm sure political parties try to make sense of what they are doing by various standard story types which is why it seems so desperately formulaic and fictional. Maybe they aren't creative enough to get away from all that so we inevitably become tired of it and switch channels.
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