Stereotypes and storytelling
Isn't a stereotype simply a believable behaviour? The precise thing you are trying to come up with when you're constructing a story?
You see, I read a user review on IMDB in which the reviewer complained about kidnapping and selling women into prostitution being a stereotype. Now, the film that gave the offence, Big Trouble in Little China, is full of things that I would naturally describe as stereotypes, starting with stereotypes about truckers, but the kidnapping of Miao Yin I'd naturally describe as a plot device to kick the film off. How reasonable is this sort of complaint? Isn't it the same thing as if someone complained about Murder She Said on the grounds that it peddles the stereotype that people kill other people over inheritances?
First off, you want to write an interesting story. So you have to write about something extraordinary. At the same time you want people to go along with your story. So what's the glue that keeps them glued to it? Stereotypes, right?
True, some stories aren't all that believable, Big Trouble in Little China being a prime example, but even in fantastic stories people are still people and expected to behave as such under whatever the fantastic circumstances may be.
Great authors veil their stereotypes of course, they don't just put them out there, but they let them come about out of an inner psychological dynamic which they control and relate to the reader. But the goings-on are still stereotypical. Or isn't it a stereotype that students are intrinsically revolutionary? Dostoevsky didn't invent that, it's a natural trait of youth to aspire, he picked it up and then showed what it means to politically exploit this trait in the way it has been exploited ever since Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment.
In a way I wished that this exploitation would itself be seen as stereotypical, but people still don't believe that no good can come from giving executive power to people who have no life experience. It's done in war, of course, but not because youth is trusted to act consideredly. When it's done outside of war, it still has the same effect. Perhaps, though, people are finally catching up with this, they sure have evidence enough.
Well, it should be clear after this that you declare war on storytelling when you declare war on stereotypes. Interestingly though the war on stereotypes came after the war on storytelling had been declared, it is not preparatory in nature, but sealing, which points to big aspirations in the area of narration control. Then again, you don't necessarily need control in order to advance your narration, it's really quite like sailing, the way in which the world works being the keel that moves the boat into the wind.
You see, I read a user review on IMDB in which the reviewer complained about kidnapping and selling women into prostitution being a stereotype. Now, the film that gave the offence, Big Trouble in Little China, is full of things that I would naturally describe as stereotypes, starting with stereotypes about truckers, but the kidnapping of Miao Yin I'd naturally describe as a plot device to kick the film off. How reasonable is this sort of complaint? Isn't it the same thing as if someone complained about Murder She Said on the grounds that it peddles the stereotype that people kill other people over inheritances?
First off, you want to write an interesting story. So you have to write about something extraordinary. At the same time you want people to go along with your story. So what's the glue that keeps them glued to it? Stereotypes, right?
True, some stories aren't all that believable, Big Trouble in Little China being a prime example, but even in fantastic stories people are still people and expected to behave as such under whatever the fantastic circumstances may be.
Great authors veil their stereotypes of course, they don't just put them out there, but they let them come about out of an inner psychological dynamic which they control and relate to the reader. But the goings-on are still stereotypical. Or isn't it a stereotype that students are intrinsically revolutionary? Dostoevsky didn't invent that, it's a natural trait of youth to aspire, he picked it up and then showed what it means to politically exploit this trait in the way it has been exploited ever since Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment.
In a way I wished that this exploitation would itself be seen as stereotypical, but people still don't believe that no good can come from giving executive power to people who have no life experience. It's done in war, of course, but not because youth is trusted to act consideredly. When it's done outside of war, it still has the same effect. Perhaps, though, people are finally catching up with this, they sure have evidence enough.
Well, it should be clear after this that you declare war on storytelling when you declare war on stereotypes. Interestingly though the war on stereotypes came after the war on storytelling had been declared, it is not preparatory in nature, but sealing, which points to big aspirations in the area of narration control. Then again, you don't necessarily need control in order to advance your narration, it's really quite like sailing, the way in which the world works being the keel that moves the boat into the wind.
Labels: 28, formalisierung, geschichte, gesetze, institutionen, wahrnehmungen, zeitgeschichte, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία
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