Every story has a purpose

[zero-gravity]

So I came to surprising epiphany today that started with an unlikely topic for intellectual stimulation: The Death of Amy Whinehouse (or however the fuck you spell her name). A friend of mine mentioned it in passing and rather than talk about the death itself, the brief discussion of her death quickly decayed into a discussion about society (as they often decay into) and particularly about why people become so voyeuristic about celebrities. We all had different ideas about why, but we all felt that no individual quite hit the spot in adequately explaining why this phenomenon is a natural universal behavior of humans. I contemplated this in the back of my head and then out of nowhere I thought to myself that the behavior of observing the lives of celebrities is very similar to watching a television drama or a story in general. I realized that the voyeuristic behavior of people towards celebrities was but a small sub-genre of the much bigger voyaristic behavior of people towards stories in general, which brought me to the much larger issue:

(If you don't like reading; or reading big words in particular, you can just skip to here... don't worry, you didn't miss anything crucial. I promise)

Why are people so interested in stories?

At first I collapsed on the usual response which is "because people can relate to stories in their own lives" but upon consideration, i realized there was no real logical basis for this answer. After further contemplation, I made an almost identical epiphany to the one I had earlier:

Because we naturally observe the behavior of others

Why do we observe the behavior of others? Simple, because we learn something from it. We observe stories because those stories are providing (whether you are consciously aware of it or not) some type of information that we subconsciously find vital. This answer makes perfect sense in the context that the primary human motive is survival. Information helps us survive. If you don't believe me, here is a perfectly good example of what I'm talking about: Harry Potter. Why is Harry Potter such a hit with all the teens these days? Simple, because many of the conflicts that Harry has to deal with are similar to the conflicts of the average teenager: Relationships, responsibility vs autonomy, knowing one's place in the world, romantic relationships, etc. but also it is particularly powerful with teenagers because teens severely lack knowledge on those subjects and desperately crave knowledge on those subjects as to help them overcome there own conflicts as quickly and effectively as possible. It is entirely pragmatic.

A much more general example is the fact that in ancient times, stories were used primarily as devices for learning (mostly about virtues and religion, but learning none-the-less).

So that's my theory.

[PePpEr828]

I trust your arguement is valid.

[EmperorOfSwag]

people take in information to learn, no matter how trivial? wow, what a discovery!

[Makakaov]

Nothing new discovered here. You get nothing. You lose.

[zero-gravity]

At 7/25/11 06:04 PM, EmperorOfSwag wrote: people take in information to learn, no matter how trivial? wow, what a discovery!

No, the point is that people are interested in celebrities/stories out of a subconscious motive to learn from other's experience (which if I may add has to do with the mirror neurons) out of the assumed theory that by intaking the stories of others, you are enhancing your own perception on similar situations.

But good try. You'll get it eventually.