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I was talking to somebody today about a certain kind of story. We had totally different reactions to it, and it made me realize that it probably said something about how I felt about life or something?
So this was in regard to an ongoing character, and the person I was talking to said that they hate stories that say that one person is special and brilliant, and another person is not, and the second person can never be as good. They also mentioned that they tend to identify with the second, not special person.
Now, that's a totally reasonable opinion. But what struck me about it was that I identify with the non-special person too. Only I love those stories. I think because I feel like a big part of life is not being...okay, not be "not special" because it's not that. One person is not inferior to another in a general way. But not being a standard special. Like, despite all the things you hear about how people can do anything if they try hard enough, the chances that all the people who want to be, say, a sport star is pretty much zero.
But outside validation and official success clichés aren't even all of it. It's also just not being as good at something as you'd like to be and knowing it. I'm not somebody who thinks that success at things is all about mystical talent. I think hard work and study is just as important--more so, really. But sometimes even hard work isn't going to get you to the level of the person who's got hard work and is just better or more suited to something.
It's not necessarily a depressing story to me, really. I guess I just feel like that's how you wind up with all the different lives in the world that we have. It would be boring if everybody just picked what they wanted to do and did it well eventually. So many more lives are people finding some other, weirder life, or they struggle with being on a lower level. Or they convince themselves they're what they always imagined and other people think they're crazy. Or they drive themselves crazy. Or they find another thing that winds up making them happier. Or they come up with a story about how they failed because of conspiracies against them.
I’m not always talking about people who suck at things either, though I like those people, the ones who manage to carve out these fantasy lives where they’re great at whatever they do even though they clearly are not good at it at all. I’m also talking about people who are okay at something, but not good enough to be anything but mediocre compared to the big guns.
There's endless ways people deal with it. But it just struck me that once the other person explained that way of looking at the story, leading to why they wanted that story to end in the non-special person triumphing, as a blow against this idea that some people just have a right to be successful because they're chosen and other people just can't. And that makes sense to me. Yet I wind up feeling the opposite way. I feel like it's a cop-out or a betrayal to have it turn out that the person really can be what they want to be because they want it badly and work hard.
It’s not that I don’t like to see underdogs succeed. Rocky is basically a story about a bunch of losers who see one chance to win at something. I don’t think there are certain people with more right to success because of who they are or what advantages they were born with, for instance. I’m talking about the level where there really is nothing holding the person back but their own limitations.
If I identify a character as someone who really has hit a wall where their goals are beyond their abilities I feel like making them succeed is bringing up a real problem that is a fact of life for maybe everyone, and then making it go away magically. Worse than magically, because magic would admit it was fake. It's like saying: You can be anything if you put your mind to it! Unless you can't...nah, you totally can! Like you didn’t bring up the problem to deal with it, you just threw it in there so they’d have something to succeed over.
I suspect this is a more intense issue in America, actually. We hit the "you can be anything!" pretty hard here. But on the bright side, that does make for some great failure stories. Hollywood's kind of built on the two extremes. There’s a reason A Death of a Salesman is an important American play. I don’t want Willy Loman to make a giant sale and get a happy ending.
So this was in regard to an ongoing character, and the person I was talking to said that they hate stories that say that one person is special and brilliant, and another person is not, and the second person can never be as good. They also mentioned that they tend to identify with the second, not special person.
Now, that's a totally reasonable opinion. But what struck me about it was that I identify with the non-special person too. Only I love those stories. I think because I feel like a big part of life is not being...okay, not be "not special" because it's not that. One person is not inferior to another in a general way. But not being a standard special. Like, despite all the things you hear about how people can do anything if they try hard enough, the chances that all the people who want to be, say, a sport star is pretty much zero.
But outside validation and official success clichés aren't even all of it. It's also just not being as good at something as you'd like to be and knowing it. I'm not somebody who thinks that success at things is all about mystical talent. I think hard work and study is just as important--more so, really. But sometimes even hard work isn't going to get you to the level of the person who's got hard work and is just better or more suited to something.
It's not necessarily a depressing story to me, really. I guess I just feel like that's how you wind up with all the different lives in the world that we have. It would be boring if everybody just picked what they wanted to do and did it well eventually. So many more lives are people finding some other, weirder life, or they struggle with being on a lower level. Or they convince themselves they're what they always imagined and other people think they're crazy. Or they drive themselves crazy. Or they find another thing that winds up making them happier. Or they come up with a story about how they failed because of conspiracies against them.
I’m not always talking about people who suck at things either, though I like those people, the ones who manage to carve out these fantasy lives where they’re great at whatever they do even though they clearly are not good at it at all. I’m also talking about people who are okay at something, but not good enough to be anything but mediocre compared to the big guns.
There's endless ways people deal with it. But it just struck me that once the other person explained that way of looking at the story, leading to why they wanted that story to end in the non-special person triumphing, as a blow against this idea that some people just have a right to be successful because they're chosen and other people just can't. And that makes sense to me. Yet I wind up feeling the opposite way. I feel like it's a cop-out or a betrayal to have it turn out that the person really can be what they want to be because they want it badly and work hard.
It’s not that I don’t like to see underdogs succeed. Rocky is basically a story about a bunch of losers who see one chance to win at something. I don’t think there are certain people with more right to success because of who they are or what advantages they were born with, for instance. I’m talking about the level where there really is nothing holding the person back but their own limitations.
If I identify a character as someone who really has hit a wall where their goals are beyond their abilities I feel like making them succeed is bringing up a real problem that is a fact of life for maybe everyone, and then making it go away magically. Worse than magically, because magic would admit it was fake. It's like saying: You can be anything if you put your mind to it! Unless you can't...nah, you totally can! Like you didn’t bring up the problem to deal with it, you just threw it in there so they’d have something to succeed over.
I suspect this is a more intense issue in America, actually. We hit the "you can be anything!" pretty hard here. But on the bright side, that does make for some great failure stories. Hollywood's kind of built on the two extremes. There’s a reason A Death of a Salesman is an important American play. I don’t want Willy Loman to make a giant sale and get a happy ending.
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