by axxxm
3/September/2023 in Kraków
Few days ago
I just talked to this woman in a cafe
She was attractive enough in both her physicality & personality
In the end we talked for a quite long time
But at some point, I noticed that deep down I was feeling some fundamental boredom
I was thinking why her stories did not sound attractive to me
And I noticed her stories lacked something
It was "conflict"
Conflict
between what she wants to achieve & her present situation
Conflict
between herself & reality around her
She seemed to accept everything in her life and looked like she already reached complete calmness & peacefulness
Vaguely coming to realise what kind of elements I find interesting in other's stories
It was "conflict" that he/she struggles to resolve
This perspective of mine is likely to be influenced by filmmaking I studied in the past
Script.....or novel or opera or symphony or any kind of storytelling......has to have "conflict" that the main character struggles
And I, and most people, get attracted to the one who tries to resolve the struggles
A struggle gets our attention
Because a struggle is one of the biggest sources of one's attraction
We are more attracted to other's pains, other's sufferings, other's loneliness than other's happiness
Hardship, more precisely "how to deal with difficulties", reveals "who he/she really is" far more vividly than "when he/she is contended, satisfied and happy"
We can't engage a story that has no suffering, no pain, no up & down
Namely, no drama
Her story lacked this drama
The level of her acceptance seemed "extraordinary" and seemed all conflicts were eradicated from the surface of her life
Yet, to my eyes, it also seemed all the attractive qualities of her.......
.......drama
.......the part that gets most attention from others
.......the most juicy part of one's life
.......that is, her attractiveness as a human being.......
were also somewhat eradicated
Everything inside her was in order, tightly organised, closely monitored
Obviously I viewed this from 100% audience point of view
As long as she was happy (she must've been happy), then it's all good
"If my story is attractive enough for other people?"
This is not what she had to consider, obviously
We are not living to provide an attractive story for others,
much less for some random stranger who talked to in a cafe
But I wonder if we can really live without drama
Wonder, without drama, if it's really called "human life"?
Without drama......
This must be the life that is not worth tasting to the fullest