Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Where's the Story? (Rough Draft)


It has taken me over fifty years, but I think I am finally getting it.

I get my share of unsolicited emails with links to videos of dare devils flying of ramps into pools many hundreds of yards away, doing stunts that boggle the limits of what is possible, amazing and stupid things both.

I like this stuff, laugh at it, am amazed by it, but find that I feel empty in spite of all the hoopla and thrill.

I finally realized that much of the "stuff" I pay attention to is just action or clever one-liners or cat videos. There is no theme, no psychological tension, no realization, or shift in perspective.

There is no insight into much of anything beyond adrenaline. It's the cotton candy of the mind.

It's everywhere.

We warm our hands around the LCD fire and share the physical exploits of our brothers and sisters, but there is no drama, no insight into the human condition, no confrontation between tired, old ways of doing things and the need to grow up.

We're in a stage of arrested development, medicating with silly videos that have no real story.

I have done the same things for years in my writing. I paint elaborate scenes and put characters in motion doing what I think are engaging actions.

But the ideas, the core, the story has been missing.

Not surprising, given the diet of candy that passes for entertainment on the internet.

There is a place for all of it -- the thrill, the titillation, the amazement. And a steady diet of it gets old and shallow.

Time to look somewhere else, now that I know what I'm after.

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