

Kurt Vonnegut explains drama - lucumo
http://sivers.org/drama

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wsprague
I think that there is a problem with scale in Vonnegut's analysis: sure, most
weeks things go up or down a little bit but remain basically even and boring.
But on the scale of years, there are turning points at which there is a HUGE
amount of drama and VERY high stakes for the ensuing years. Cinderella
probably had her boring days once she was "living happily ever after", but the
week or so it took to get hitched by the prince WAS just as dramatic as all
that, and the outcome was worthy of the drama.

I think because high stakes and high drama processes DO happen in real life,
we simulate them with vicarious experiences of narrative so we can be ready
mentally. If we don't digest stories beforehand, we won't have a model for
when we discover we have cancer, risk losing a job or a deal, court a loved
one, try to get accepted to an ivy league school, etc.

And if there isn't SOME drama in your life with real stakes and real risks,
you probably need to go out and take on some challenges. Such a desire for
drama is hardly pathetic or dysfunctional. That is, unless you stay at home
and only satisfy it vicariously with HBO, or create needless challenges
without any real stakes like driving too fast...

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ilyak
I second down: I have some huge ups and some noticeable downs in my life, and
everybody does, who's not a robot.

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foulmouthboy
Vonnegut's book A Man Without a Country has his full analysis (with drawings)
including his thoughts on Kafka and Hamlet.

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jeremymims
Personal anecdote:

About 6 years ago, I saw him do these and the full timeline drawing of Hamlet
at Washington and Lee University. In his very understated way he wowed the
audience, but at this point he had the audience in stitches.

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GavinB
This is an explanation of why people _like_ fairy tales--but he has the
causation in the wrong direction.

We like fairy tales because they appeal to our natural sense of drama--they
aren't the cause of it.

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kijiki
I think we're going to need some partial differential equations to work
through this one...

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andrewljohnson
I highly recommend you follow @kurt_vonnegut on twitter. He's a bot run by one
of my friends that quotes Kurt daily. He's by far my favorite tweeter.

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blhack
Please tell me he reads the replies, because otherwise it means that I have
been replying for no reason.

Or would it still mean that I am replying for no reason if he WAS reading
them, but not responding!?

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dangoldin
Another interesting post on the same subject:
[http://www.austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-
mr-...](http://www.austinkleon.com/2005/12/17/graph-a-story-with-mr-vonnegut/)

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oldgregg
Excellent stuff. Two things come to mind:

1) The loss of God probably plays a large role here. Faith provides a meta-
narrative that gives the humdrum of life context and a story arc. Without that
you just have a random collection of sensations without meaning.

2) We can't look at the last 30 years as normative. Pop culture (eg MTV) has
dramatically increased the amount of drama we feel like we need. My Generation
Y has an increasing emphasis on disconnected experiences -- and we have a
whole new set of cultural artifacts to show for it -- Seinfeld, Improv
Everywhere, Garden State, Juno, etc.

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wsprague
Just a quick couple comments:

1) There are lots of unifying themes and grounds of meaning besides God -- the
motherland, the continuity of the family, evolution, personal actualization,
etc.

2) I disagree with most statements to the effect that "everything is different
now", though the OP has a couple of interesting points. First --
disconnectedness has been a theme in the arts since the turn of the century
(Dada, Sartre, etc). Second, I think that folks sitting around the campfire in
the Kalahari probably like drama just as much as we do, they just that their
media are different -- stories, songs, and low tech ritual versus TV; but I
think the charge of meaning is the same, even if the amount of color and noise
is vastly different.

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oldgregg
I would say we've even lost that. A hundred years ago people might have hung
their hat on any of those things you mentioned -- or more often than not,
moralistic religion -- but at least they were part of some kind of grand
story. Now it feels like we're all kind of floating out there. We're the
middle children of history as Tyler Durden so eloquently said.

We're certainly all hard-wired for a narrative, I just had too many
experiences in college, where I was like "Are you serious?! You're re-enacting
last weeks episode of the Real World!" :)

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thaumaturgy
> We're the middle children of history as Tyler Durden so eloquently said.

You just quoted a hyperbolic work of fiction in supporting your point that
people are addicted to referencing hyperbolic works of fiction.

That's a beautiful kind of irony right there.

Respectfully, I think you're accusing everyone else of being guilty of your
own sin.

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fnid
This opinion from Vonnegut, someone who has lived one of the most dramatic
lives anyone could ever possibly live and still be alive.

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_pius
Not sure I buy it, but I like hearing Vonnegut's thoughts on the subject

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Mongoose
This would explain the effectiveness of marketing. If you can increase the
perceived glamour (or ability to generate drama) of a product, people will be
more likely to buy it.

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mrshoe
Is this, at some level, why we all want to do startups? To make our lives like
fairy tales? It certainly is a roller coaster.

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redorb
after a rough day at the office (drama) seems - like his assumptions are at
least in the zone of 'right'.

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ccarpenterg
What a lack of empathy! I completely disagree.

