Ultimately These Little Elements Become Meaning - Blog Posts

caramel-lita

2 weeks ago

I think part of the problem of modern storytelling is there has been a shift from character focus to message focus.

It's Doctor Who saying "look the evil alt right podcaster has trapped everyone in a weird heteronormative wish world that's baaaaaad uhb we don't know how to resolve it satisfyingly" vs "Rose dragged along a guy she thought cute and he turned out to be a jerk and used time travel to gain access to future secrets and we see her and the Doctor react to that in a way thar shows us more about their character." It's "the Beatles are here kind of as a backdrop to our drag queen villain isn't that fun woo musical number" vs "let's tell a touching story about Vincent van Gogh's depression and relate that to what our characters are currently going through."

And its not just Doctor Who--it's pervasive. It's "let's tell a character focused story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the darkness and the love around him that wasn't enough" vs "Star Wars is GAY and look at her BLEED her LIGHTSABER." It's "Here's a 19 year old who lost her parents and has to raise her difficult sister, let's see her motivations and love for her sister" vs "Nani is doing the Right Thing for Herself because going to College is Girlboss!"

And this isn't the first time the focus of storytelling has shifted--before it was character focused, we had concept focus. Doctor Who exploring Roman times or a realm made of stories, where characters carry the plot, but aren't the focus of episodes. Episode IV of star wars was certainly a conceptual idea more than character focused, exploring the world and building it as you go. Old Disney like Snow White explored the concept of retelling a fairytale in animation.

I just think that unfortunately the focus of mainstream stories is not to explore a concept, or interesting characters, but to push a message.

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the funniest part is that older shows and movies still had deep messages even if the focus was on character or concept humans create media based on human experience there will always be a piece of the creator's personality; beliefs; culture; society; etc. that will slip into the art ultimately these little elements become meaning snow white may be focused on retelling a folk tale in another medium but it still has a message about remaining positive in times of hardship it may not have been the main focus but it managed to become an important part of the film without being forceful and it was certainly important to the people who watched it in cinemas. they were struggling with the effects of the great depression. themes and morals have typically been interwoven into storytelling in an organic way that's why when a show tries to shove a lesson or agenda in the viewer's faces regardless of whether the message is considered valuable or not it will always feel like the creators dont trust the audience to derive meaning from the media by themselves when you spoonfeed the message you take the joy out of engaging with the media and when spoonfeeding comes hand in hand with sacrificing elemwnts of cohesive storytelling then you're taking the “story” out of the “storytelling” and if the concern is with imparting more specific themes instead of general ones so many older stories do so without sacrificing other elements allegory for misogyny? handmaid's tale girlboss follow your dreams? legally blonde! ultimately storytelling cannot function if you focus on the message and consequently neglect other elements of the plot but there will always be a message organically woven into a story even if you focus on characters or concepts more and even if you don't prioritize the message at all

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