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capri0mniI came to the realization, the other day, that YouTube is kind of taking up the "Ecological Niche" that Usenet, used to, years ago, in that it allows people to wander in and find discussions of ideas, or artistic pieces, or random silliness (i.e. cats!) and then join in the discussions via the comment threads or video responses.*
So I think that's one reason why I want to make a video of some sort on the power of storytelling, and the importance of Bechdel-like tests for under-and-misrepresented populations (specifically, the Disabled, but also P.O.C., trans*-folk and the like): There's more of a chance for the message to reach beyond the choir, so to speak.
Really, I want to answer this question (which I posed/posted the other day):
"What's the link between A) proverbial "rose colored glasses," B) the tendency for tragic literature to be taken more seriously than happy literature, C) the use and misuse of 'creative visualization,' and D) Storytelling?"
I have a sense the answer, but I want to tighten it up so that it can fit into a video that's no more than 6 minutes.
Believe it or not, "If and When"-- a Poem of Eulogy and Celebration grew out of a "Dare" from spiralsheep to write a poem about my rose-tinted glasses. That dare came in the immediate context (in that thread) of wondering aloud why dystopian or otherwise tragic literature is generally considered more serious and worthy of study than happy, or comic (in the broadest literary sense) literature, and in a broader context (in a discussion on spiralsheep's journal) about the dangers of the "cult of Positive Thinking," and how that leads to victim-blaming when it comes to disease or other misfortune.
...And that reminded me that Mother died twenty-one years before, almost to the day I started writing that poem... And so that's the poem I ended up writing, instead of the "Why do you try to stifle my cheerfulness?" poem I originally intended...
And then, there are certain circumstances where "Creative Visualization" techniques are actually useful. From my own experience, these circumstances tend to be limited to accomplishing physical tasks (such as pushing a manual wheelchair over a threshold). If it's something I've done before, but I'm stuck, doing it now, it helps for me to take a deep breath and imagine myself being successful before trying again. I'm not sure, but I think that works because replaying a physical task in your mind gets all those neurons firing in the right order as if you were actually doing it-- even those bits that you've consciously forgotten. So it "primes the pump," as it were. But that does not work in things like fighting cancer or finding the love of your life, or winning the lottery, because all those other things are affected by much more complex systems that are beyond our control. But humans are simple creatures, and really want a single solution to fit every sort of problem, so if it works for hitting a baseball, it should work for cancer, dammit!
I remember reading (or maybe hearing, on radio or TV or something) that we humans tend to discount our own experience, even if it's an often repeated experience, until we see it reflected in broadly accepted cultural narratives. Unfortunately, I cannot remember when or where I came across that idea.
When I was a teenager, I'd often try to argue: "how do we know humans are the only creatures with true language, just because we don't understand what other animals are saying to each other?" and I'd get told that while other animals certainly communicate (such as when a white tailed deer flashes its white tail as a signal of "danger," this is merely a physiological response to stress, and is no more "language" than when humans say "Auurgh!" when someone drops an anvil on their foot... since then, there have been studies that show that chickens have specific calls for ground predators and sky predators, and that monkeys in certain regions of the Amazon seem to have something like grammar (a "Snake!" call vs. a "maybe snake?!" call), so the uniqueness of human language is just beginning to get blurred (just like the uniqueness of human tool-making is getting questioned).
Going solely by outward appearances, lots of animals "talk" and "gesture" in their communications, but of all animals, I have seen humans engage in a certain pattern of behavior that I've seen no other animal do (again, going solely by outward appearances): a) gather in a social group, b) the majority of that group fall (relatively) silent, c) one (or a minority) of that group do all the talking and/or gesturing, while d) the majority seem to fall into a sort of trance, with their eyes wide, and their jaws slack. When you think about it, that's kind of weird, right?
Therefore, it's my conjecture that this is, somehow, an evolution-driven behavior that we developed as a species. And that we evolved more sophisticated and subtle language systems than other animals in order to improve the outcomes of this behavior (rather than being the only creatures to have any language of any sort).
This ritual is, of course, "Storytelling." And at the core of this ritual is the willing "surrender" of the imagination of the audience to the author -- when those in the majority of the social group agree to (temporarily) accept the products of the Teller's imagination as their own.
The roles of Teller and Audience are in constant flux, or at least, far more fluid than other roles of leadership or status. And individuals' "surrendering" of their imaginations (for the duration of the tale) is far from passive, but rather help draw out and give shape to the Teller's narrative.
A related conjecture of mine is that this ritual of shared imagination does for the group what "creative visualization" does for the individual when trying to accomplish a difficult physical task, thus facilitating complex undertakings such as building houses or hunting game, or coordinating the planting of crops.
That could be why we don't recognize our own experiences as valid until we've heard/seen/felt them reflected back to us in stories. And (FINALLY):
That's why it's important to question and refine our stories if we want to achieve social justice.
...I did not expect this post to take all day... But it did (three hours). Why (well there were breaks for food and bathroom, but still)?
*...The only problem is that there's still a technological gate and lock there, because many people still do not have broadband, or are accessing the Internet through their phones, which makes broadband prohibitively expensive (Was discussing this with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pendanther in regards to a venue for a 50th anniversary special of the Pro-Fun Hoedown, maybe, and why the hoedowns/round robins flourished like kudzu on Usenet, but fizzled as an LJ community).
So I think that's one reason why I want to make a video of some sort on the power of storytelling, and the importance of Bechdel-like tests for under-and-misrepresented populations (specifically, the Disabled, but also P.O.C., trans*-folk and the like): There's more of a chance for the message to reach beyond the choir, so to speak.
Really, I want to answer this question (which I posed/posted the other day):
"What's the link between A) proverbial "rose colored glasses," B) the tendency for tragic literature to be taken more seriously than happy literature, C) the use and misuse of 'creative visualization,' and D) Storytelling?"
I have a sense the answer, but I want to tighten it up so that it can fit into a video that's no more than 6 minutes.
spiralsheep to write a poem about my rose-tinted glasses. That dare came in the immediate context (in that thread) of wondering aloud why dystopian or otherwise tragic literature is generally considered more serious and worthy of study than happy, or comic (in the broadest literary sense) literature, and in a broader context (in a discussion on spiralsheep's journal) about the dangers of the "cult of Positive Thinking," and how that leads to victim-blaming when it comes to disease or other misfortune.- That got me thinking how ironic it was that my own mother, who thought of herself as scientifically minded, requested that I positive-think on her behalf while she was dealing with cancer, while
- I was required, for class, to read all this literature about how nasty humans are, in general -- it's telling, I think, that the most cheerful book I read, that semester, was Albert Camus' The Plague, because, while nearly everyone died a horrible, lonely death, at least their intentions were noble.
...And that reminded me that Mother died twenty-one years before, almost to the day I started writing that poem... And so that's the poem I ended up writing, instead of the "Why do you try to stifle my cheerfulness?" poem I originally intended...
- Furthermore, this behavior pattern persists across all sorts of cultural modes -- from face-to-face interactions to "gatherings" mediated by various technological proxies (movies, television, printed text) and
- And this behavior has been observed to be universal (as far as I can tell) among all extant human societies, regardless of other vast differences in their environments or chosen means of expression.
...I did not expect this post to take all day... But it did (three hours). Why (well there were breaks for food and bathroom, but still)?
*...The only problem is that there's still a technological gate and lock there, because many people still do not have broadband, or are accessing the Internet through their phones, which makes broadband prohibitively expensive (Was discussing this with
pendanther in regards to a venue for a 50th anniversary special of the Pro-Fun Hoedown, maybe, and why the hoedowns/round robins flourished like kudzu on Usenet, but fizzled as an LJ community).
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 12:51 am (UTC)I remember reading (or maybe hearing, on radio or TV or something) that we humans tend to discount our own experience, even if it's an often repeated experience, until we see it reflected in broadly accepted cultural narratives.
and
That's why it's important to question and refine our stories if we want to achieve social justice.
That makes so much sense! So much.
I enjoy those little snippets you find in the writing of certain authors (Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett spring to mind first) where they've observed a behaviour or way of thinking in themselves or others and written it into a story in a way that I've never seen it described before -- something I've seen or felt many times but never read or heard spoken about. I love that feeling of surprise from reading something that's true but has always been ignored by other writers. Sometimes it's a gleeful feeling (when it's an odd thing, or a thing I've mainly seen other people do) and sometimes it's a rueful feeling of being caught out in something objectively bad which I thought nobody knew about, but it's always a good surprise to read about something which is true and real but never discussed, rather than the clichés used in standard ordinary books about thoughts or behaviours which I've read about millions of times before and which get repeated again and again whether or not they're true.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-01 02:19 am (UTC)I started thinking about this a few years back, in a discussion with (someone whose name I can't find in my DreamWidth access list [weird]) about the difficulty in Writing the "Other" even when you are the "Other" (In our cases, 'disabled'; she, Deaf and dealing with chronic pain/fatigue, I, with mobility impairment). I realized that, even though I am disabled, I'd never successfully or comfortably written a disabled character - that all the characters I wrote were based on other people I knew, never myself (in school, I was always the only kid in a wheelchair).
It really wasn't until I started talking about the "Disability Experience" with others (online), who told their own stories and drew out mine, that I was able to even contemplate writing such a character...
I guess it's like trying to draw your own face without a mirror...
Pro-Fun Hoedowns
Date: 2013-02-03 04:41 am (UTC)Whatever venue you decide on, I am SO in! I was a little sad that the LJ Hoedown fizzled out without being completed. Plus, it's actually feasible for me to get a good grounding in Doctor Who now! I hope there is an anniversary edition.
Re: Pro-Fun Hoedowns
Date: 2013-02-03 05:08 am (UTC)