do we need conflict?
Jun. 14th, 2007 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI was thinking about the stories we tell ourselves and the fables we believe. It seems to me that conflict forms a central part of all of these. All the religious texts I've read worship psychopathic gods who seem obsessed with senseless destruction. All the top movies seem to center around conflict, often life-threatening. Books seem to be the same. It is weird... and somewhat depressing. What does that say about us as a species?
Even some of my favorite movies, Amelie, Little Man Tate, For The Birds, The Telephone, Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion, which don't have guns or direct violence, still use conflict as an important story element.
I love the Karin Kallmaker romances because they are lovely, light escapes, but even these generally feature a fair amount of conflict, with some of the later ones even tending to tragedy, and I find this upsetting.
A couple of years ago I tried to write a story that generally didn't have conflict. It was, by all accounts a resounding failure. I'm still largely proud of it, except the parts where I bowed to pressure and added conflict, and I'll fix that one day when I get time. Unfortunately when I do I just know nobody will read it, or if they do they won't like it because it will be too "nice". But that has me puzzled: how can being nice be a failure? What is it about us that lets us describe a tragedy as beautiful, or a violent action story as thrilling?
When was the last time you read a book or watched a movie that had no conflict at all?
What the hell is wrong with us?
Even some of my favorite movies, Amelie, Little Man Tate, For The Birds, The Telephone, Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion, which don't have guns or direct violence, still use conflict as an important story element.
I love the Karin Kallmaker romances because they are lovely, light escapes, but even these generally feature a fair amount of conflict, with some of the later ones even tending to tragedy, and I find this upsetting.
A couple of years ago I tried to write a story that generally didn't have conflict. It was, by all accounts a resounding failure. I'm still largely proud of it, except the parts where I bowed to pressure and added conflict, and I'll fix that one day when I get time. Unfortunately when I do I just know nobody will read it, or if they do they won't like it because it will be too "nice". But that has me puzzled: how can being nice be a failure? What is it about us that lets us describe a tragedy as beautiful, or a violent action story as thrilling?
When was the last time you read a book or watched a movie that had no conflict at all?
What the hell is wrong with us?