Just stumbled this and thought it was very interesting It is from a blog by Derek Sivers. Kurt Vonnegut explains drama 2009-09-01 I was at a Kurt Vonnegut talk in New York a few years ago. Talking about writing, life, and everything. He explained why people have such a need for drama in their life. He said, “People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began. The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories. Let's look at a few examples.†He drew an empty grid on the board, like this: Time moves from left to right. Happiness from bottom to top. He said, “Let's look at a very common story arc. The story of Cinderella.†It starts with her awful life with evil stepsisters, scrubbing the fireplace. Then she get an invitation to the ball! Things look up. Then the fairy godmother makes her a dress and a coach. Even better! Then she goes to the ball, and dances with the prince! This is great! But then it's midnight. She has to go. Oh no. Sadness. Back to her humdrum life scrubbing the fireplace. But it's not as bad as before, because she's had this encouraging experience. Then, the prince finds her, and the happiness factor is off the chart! Happily ever after. “People LOVE that story! This story arc has been written a thousand times in a thousand tales. And because of it, people think their lives are supposed to be like this.†He wiped the board clean and said, “Now let's look at another popular story arc: the disaster.†It's an ordinary day in an ordinary town. But something horrible happens! A child falls down a well! The whole town gathers to save her. Old grudges surface, but are belittled in the light of this tragedy. Rifts are bonded as people work together. The child is saved, and all is well. But notice it's a little better than it was before, now that this incident has brought them all closer together. “People LOVE that story! This story arc has been written a thousand times in a thousand tales. And because of it, people think their lives are supposed to be like this.†But the problem is, life is really like this... Our lives drifts along with normal things happening. Some ups, some downs, but nothing to go down in history about. Nothing so fantastic or terrible that it'll be told for a thousand years. “But because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story arcs in books and movies, we think our lives are supposed to be filled with huge ups and downs! So people pretend there is drama where there is none.†That's why people invent fights. That's why we're drawn to sports. That's why we act like everything that happens to us is such a big deal. We're trying to make our life into a fairy tale.
Cool find! I was thining along these lines the other day; Have we been so consumed by the 'Action Movie mentality' (in this case a fairy tale mentality) that we eventually will turn our lives into one?
Yep, life is usually boring compared to all the stories of the world. Personally, I can do without the drama unless I can take the highs without the lows. Love Vonnegut BTW (if that wasn't already apparent).
ah, good to see a fellow bokononist what he says is true. i see people dramatize their life everyday, and i often thought it was to make it more interesting than what it is. this is something i would like to look more into, perhaps in the sense of psychology.
Thanks for the responses This made me step back and really think about some things in my life, about what is and is not important enough to have a knock down, drag out fight about..
although it's not exactly tied in with this, i now understand why facebook and twitter is so popular, people tend to put their life and experiences on a pedestal. for example: "about to go to class" how is that in any way relevant or important to others?
The best book about the psychology of religion and politics that I have ever read is still Cat's Cradle. Boku Maru, anyone? " All the world is a stage, and all the men and women, are merely players." Excuse me, I have some reality TV to catch up on, and this Ice-9 is burning a hole in my pocket.