There is fiction in the space between
The lines on your page of memories
Write it down but it doesn't mean
You're not just telling stories
There is fiction in the space between
When critics started trying to claim that the accounts of the gospel contradicted one another. The logical response to the criticism was to look at court testimonies, how historical records are deemed as credible, and narratives. To measure these concrete devices for deriving accurate and reliable information, and essentially come to the conclusion that the gospels are different men's accounts of their time and interactions with Christ.
In our quest to derive pure measures of truth some people bought into the notion of relativism. That in all we can hope to understand of the situation and circumstances around us is our very own interpretation of those events. In a way separating us for a larger connective context. Essentially I can not hope to understand how anyone else might perceive or interpret a situation, a poem, a song, a visual image, piece of cake, ect. because I don't have the same biology, past experiences, age, gender, or virtually anything exactly the same as anyone else. Kind of isolating if you really buy into it. Relativism of course has some merit, but is not entirely accurate either.
This separation anxiety and isolating philosophy gave birth to the importance of narrative. Each individual is the main character of their own little reality, and each story is valid in and of itself because it is uniquely told by the only one who can lend itself any sort of legitimacy the person them self.
It is in my opinion why a show such as The Hills can become so outrageously popular. Its not that Laura Conrad herself is so riveting, or her story so engrossing. Its just that a bunch of cameras following around a person easy on the eyes unveiling her mundane intimacies for public display. Visibly displaying one of the central tenants of relativistic thought. Even if we are not Laura Conrad we all kind of feel like her when faced with postmodern relativism driving the cultural shift in popular thought and the way the world view is currently being interpreted from the lens of narrative. Everyones narrative is fascinatingly interesting (even if the cameras only display parts of the story) because it is uniquely theirs.
David Lynch has now also capitalized on this current world view, and done Interview Project. If my friend Hannah still reads this blog she just rolled her eyes, because she knows that I'm a total Lynch fiend. I want to put the disclaimer out there that I did go into viewing I.P. with every measure of resistance I'm capable of. To no avail though, as essentially David with his messy grey and white flock of seagull hair still managed to reel me in. My favorite Interviews to date are Tommy Holiday and Clara. Tommy living for love, and Clara's active resistance to leaving a legacy stating "Life is for the living. I don't need to be remembered."
If you check it out. Let me know what you think. No matter how hard one might try to avoid being saturated by ones culture its kind of inevitable. So here is a project and an aspect of narrative that I think is worth being saturated by. Enjoy!
1 comments:
This is interesting. One of my profs was big-time in evolutionary psychology, and gave these talks about the evolutionary role of gossip. The basic idea is that gossip evolved as a means of keeping tabs on our peers, and thus having the best information available for purposes of survival. Of course, knowing where your next door neighbor found the best hunting is far more relevant than, say, knowing which color Lauren Conrad painted her toenails. But, though we shifted from living in isolated groups to living in a global culture, we still have the evolutionary "gossip" mechanism. And in fact, the mechanism is still helpful to some degree--how many times have you gotten word of a good sale, or reliable (or unreliable) mechanic/hairdresser/restaurant through gossip? And then it still leads to silly, unhelpful gossip--trash magazines, celebreality, etc. Too bad we can't pick and choose which evolutionary adaptations to take, and how to use them. Though, in some instances, I suppose we can. Thumbs-free Friday!!!
Anyhow, I think the question of our interest in other peoples' minutiae is maybe a related, but separate strand of the relativist issue. I'm fascinated by this connection between relativism and narrative. I also thinking it's interesting that in our quest for individualism, we turn from relatedness, which is implicated again and again as a savior of sorts. No man is an island.
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