posted
I was watching movies recently, and after watching The Matrix, I watched 12 Monkeys. Of course there are a lot of contrasts between the two, but one thing struck me in particular.
The Matrix is set up as a crucial conflict between Good and Evil, with the fate of humanity riding in the balance. Of course, Good wins. 12 Monkeys is set up as one man's journey through the trials of a world gone mad, and nothing hangs in the balance because the outcome has already taken place, a theme reiterated throughout by small examples of causal loops, all of which contribute to the larger causal loop of the story as a whole.
But James' story in 12 Monkeys, as futile as it is from some 'objective' standpoint, is not meaningless. He doesn't save humanity from the virus, he doesn't ever see the ocean, he doesn't escape from the future, even by dying in the past. But he doesn't lose our attention because of these failures. The audience is riveted, and not by a sense of hopelessness either (though that may have been the intent of the film). His struggle is heroic in its own right, Cole is a hero whether or not he succeeds.
Card believes that Narrative is the principle by which communities define themselves and transmit values and motives to their individual members. Neurologists now believe that informal narratives compose the organizational foundation of all coherent memory, and perhaps all higher thought. When we dream, our mind appears to impose meaning on a stream of sensory information that is largely random.
Much might be made of this, but what I wonder is how people here view Narrative, what makes a story meaningful to us, what impells us to present our own stories to others?
posted
I think struggle itself, rather than success or failure, is what makes a story -- be it "12 Monkeys" or whatever -- riveting. Or not riveting, if the struggle isn't difficult and testing the protagonist to his limits.
Posts: 187 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I'm in agreement with Chad. It's the actual struggle that means the most to me. I read Ender's game and I honestly believe that in the end he could have just died after the final battle and the book would have held much of the same meaning. (Although seeing how closely I identify with the book it probably would have driven me into a prolonged depression.) For me the essence of the struggle, and the trials that the person goes through in their own mind during that struggle are what make the novel great. After thinking back over my favorite books of all time (this list is short because I have had considerably little time to read adult novels) I realize that the common theme among them is their focus on the human condition, on the actual struggle.
A Star Wars novel I read has come back to me. I was utterly obsessed with the whole universe and read the stories as a matter of course, they were only halfway enjoyable. One book though was placed about ten years after the last movie. Leah becomes the president of the new republic. Essentially it's about all the trials she goes through during one of the final hot points in the war. The ending is anything but happy (she is basically impeached and removed from power)but I loved it all the same. The power of the novel doesn't come from the trials or how they are resolved. The power of the novel comes from the way the characters react with the problems and are involved in their world.
The Great Uberslacker
I suppose my fingers are on fire well my mind is dead cold. I fear I have babbled again.
posted
I would also agree that the struggle plays a large role in creating interest in a story. But (at least for me) there needs to be some element of overcoming some of the hardship of that struggle. I’m not saying there always has to be a sugary-sweet and happy ending, but some little glimmer hope. And it keeps down the post reading depression (Although that can just as easily be brought on the by coming to quickly to the end of a wonderful story – the jettison out into the real world is just a bit of a shock sometimes )
So with that in mind, I would have to disagree with Uberslackers comment about Ender dying at the end of the book. Had Ender just died at the end of Ender’s Game, there would have been this sense that though he had saved humankind from the buggers, he lost in the end because they (the buggers, the military, etc) had totally destroyed him. So while his struggle succeeded on a grand scale, the final personal defeat would have overshadowed that for the reader. Not that such an ending might not have worked for some sort of epic tale more focused on the world concerns, a noble sacrifice of one for many. But Ender’s Game is a personal story, the story of one young man facing overwhelming challenges placed again and again before him. His survival means that maybe in time he will heal, that he can again overcome his demons or a least make some sort of amends for his actions. Sort of that ray of hope for anyone reading that they too can survive seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And OSC does show some of that in his later books of the series with Ender’s work as the Speaker for the Dead, and his efforts on Luisthaia (sp?).
So what make a narrative gripping? It is the struggle. It’s finding some part of the characters that touches something inside you, either who you are or who you wish you could be. It’s a sense of wonder, going beyond the realms of ordinary experience, yet keeping it real by rooting the very core of the story in the people and things most important to us. Maybe not every narrative does all things, but the ones that speak to us touch some aspect of those things.
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