"We tell stories to try to come to terms with the world, to harmonize
our lives with reality...Myths are stories of our search through the
ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. We all need to tell our
story and to understand our story. We all need to understand death and
to cope with death, and we all need help in our passages from birth
to life and then to death. We need for life to signify, to touch the
eternal, to understand the mysterious, to find our who we are."
I was watching The Simpsons once and Martin described a phenomenon that occurs in groups. Using sticks as a metaphor, he explained how one stick is easily broken, but a group of sticks together makes a cluster that can't be broken easily. Now even though this was solely a gag to successfully and appropriately use the word "faggot" to describe a bundle of sticks, one can extrapolate what Alan Campbell explained in his quotation to relate to this anecdote. Stories are a significant way to relate our personal experiences to the culture around us.
Using this opinion, however, I thought: Why must we relate to the world around us? Is it necessary for others to experience what we experience? Personally, I believe this is an idea that is imposed on us by our culture. Is it necessary to survival to explain the emotional pain we're feeling? Would we die if people didn't empathize with us? The probable answer is no. The ancient humans did not need to explain to others that they felt left out because others left for the hunt without them. I think this idea of needing to emotionally relate to others is a construct. Now that is has happened, however, we do interact and use each other as tools for empathy, and stories are a common medium through which to do this.
***I do not think emotions are wrong or useless now. I only think they are unnecessary for physical survival.***
Emotions are not necessary for survival, but they are an important part of the heroes journey. The only way that the idea of the hero works is to appeal to the emotions of the audience. After all, the main point of such a figure is to inspire the general public to act with some of the qualities of the ideal hero. Without empathy we are selfish beings, confined within the individual. High level emotions allow us to move past the individual and enter into a higher realm. This is what is represented by the special abilities of the hero; they are able to use their empathetic nature to blow past boundaries of humanity and into the hero state.
ReplyDeleteYou really have a very interesting point. I do agree that emotions are not needed for living, but it is our human nature to express ourselves. I was a little confused on your statement on how our culture influences us to tell others our experiences. Did you mean our culture as in today's culture or universal culture? Anyways you do have really good points, but I do agree with Ali's statement on how a hero needs to have positive emotions to appeal the audience. Good job! (By the way, loved the Simpson reference.)
DeleteI've done all of my comments already but I just have to say that title of the post lured me in immediately
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