@izzyizumi / izzyizumi.tumblr.com
An Oresteia (Agamemnon), Anne Carson
critical thinking while consuming media is important but some of you really are like "if you enjoy a cartoon with flaws you will never achieve happiness"
I think people have truly lost any ability to be patient with storytelling.
‘I don’t understand this’ They’ll explain it if you wait.
‘I don’t like how this episode left things hanging’ There’s a continuation next week.
‘This character is flat’ Wait for them to be fleshed out.
So many of the complaints I see about shows lately are people being confused by things THAT THE SHOW WANTS YOU TO BE CONFUSED BY THATS THE FUN OF MYSTERY AND FORESHADOWING YOU ABSOLUTE GOBLINS THE MAIN CHARACTER IS ALSO CONFUSED AND THEYRE GONNA DO A BIG REVEAL AND EXPLANATION LATER IF YOU WOULD JUST FUCKING WAIT
You do not owe it to ANYONE, even yourself, to reach your absolute maximum “potential”
I think you should try to lead a good life. To lead a happy life. To do good deeds, and to find a life you can be proud of. But you don’t need to force the absolute highest possible achievement out of yourself. You don’t need to live your entire life without making any mistakes, or missing any opportunities. You are allowed to take it easy sometimes. You are allowed to be human.
Maybe you have made some big mistakes that got you “off track” in a major way. That’s ok! It doesn’t mean you wasted your life. Maybe you aren’t doing as much as you possibly could each day. That’s ok too! There is no score in life. There is no one best path. You are enough, I promise <3
That last post does drive home that one of the reasons some people who dislike tragic fiction feel so vehemently about it is because they believe that a sad ending is some kind of punishment or condemnation of the characters and their choices. Which - yeah, if I felt that way I’d probably dislike tragedy too!
That’s not how tragedy works, though, is the thing. There is no win-state. Traditionally speaking the audience goes in knowing that there is no win-state, already aware of the story’s destination but here to see the journey. (Maybe there’s something to be said here about fate, and modernity, and how our experience of certain stories subtly changes when we don’t understand fate as a very real force. Maybe there’s also something to be said about a kind of cultural bootstraps individualism and belief in the power of personal choices.)
Tragedy is about making choices when there is no correct choice - when all you have left is your agency to choose. Tragedy is a maze with one exit, where the story is how you get there. Tragedy is humanity as the beautiful wild creature with its leg in a trap, gnawing it off to be free, and the audience caught in terrible awe at so much furious alive-ness in a story made of death.
And obviously it’s valid for that not to be some people’s cup of tea. I can see why it wouldn’t be! But I do get sort of curious sometimes at how fundamentally differently different people seem to experience sad stories, and I think the idea that sad endings are an implicit condemnation of the characters explains some of it.
