flashmedallion

I hate to get political in this thread, but I hear the arguments in my small New Zealand city about there being too many immigrants and I'm like have you tried the fucking food they all bring with them? Immigration is amazing for anyone who likes to eat.

Best question in the thread.

Is this some super condensed version of the hero’s journey?

This is actually the correct answer. "Story" is a hardwired dramatic... thing... that is inherent to our subconscious humanity.

Person goes into the unknown and returns changed, better able to deal with the known world. That's probably the simplest you can boil it down to while still hitting the essentials.

Most of us spend our days upstairs, trying to avoid going into the basement of our psychology. But at the end of the day, you still need to go down there, whether it's to change a fuse, check for leaks, or get something out of storage. The storytellers job is to be a guide to this kind of journey.

That's an interesting situation, thanks for sharing that. I've found the 'higher power' thing can manifest itself in interesting places though, regardless of your position on deism. Do you believe that humanity can accomplish more together than as individuals? More specifically, do believe that we all have more in common that we do differences; that we share the same basic wants and needs and fears, that despite our inscrutability to each other we share very similar inner lives?

Do you hold it to be true that humans derive joy from showing love to one another, despite the millions of assholes on the planet providing constant evidence against this? A pure rationalist would be forced to discard this idea - "other people are just like me no matter how differently they act nor how much hatred they show" - but I consider faith in humanity to be a belief in a higher power.

I'm visualizing a whole lot of perfectly flat layers, sliding around like a moving comic book.

Basically the dead opposite of Hugo, but used for stylistic effect.