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"You are not alone across time"
Oct. 11th, 2014 09:27 amJust read a fascinating article in the October issue of Harper's Magazine, You are not alone across time: using Sophocles to treat PTSD, by Wyatt Mason. If you're not a subscriber, you may be able to access a potentially unsanctioned version at Scribd.com. The psychological and historical aspects of this story are fascinating in their own right, but here I'll focus on something closer to the heart of this blog: communication.
Over the years, I've come to believe that the stories that endure across the years -- or the centuries and millennia in some cases -- are the ones that speak to core human issues that remained largely unchanged "across time": love, loss, heroism, stupid mistakes (including heroic ones), and learning hard lessons (or providing them to others through our own examples). These shared experiences reinforce our ties with those who came before us and those who will follow. The story of Christ has been described as "the greatest story ever told", but it's really just one compelling chapter in the larger story of all people, everywhere. And it, like Sophocles before it and Shakespeare afterwards, endures because it establishes a visceral sense of empathy with other people in other times. I often wonder how much of today's fiction meets that test, and will endure beyond its short run on the Times bestseller list.
Reading about the experience of some of the actors in the plays reminded me of why I love to teach, and why I don't do Webinars or other forms of online learning -- which is undoubtedly similar to why the best actors prefer to "strut and fret their time upon the stage" (to modify the Bard's wording) rather than to appear on TV or in the movies: live acting creates an intense emotional connection with the audience and in the best scripts, whether tragedy or comedy, there's a shared understanding of something profound. It's the actor's gift to be able to cause that understanding and empathy to blossom in the hearts and minds of their audience, while sharing that moment of connection over a shared experience.
TV versus stage, and Webinar versus in-person lecture, are like the difference between masturbation and lovemaking: without the connection, the experience may be pleasant, but it is greatly impoverished. (And like all similes and metaphors, I hasten to add that this one should not be extrapolated beyond its immediate and surface meaning.) When I'm not just telling a story, I occasionally aspire to make that connection in my writing, but I only feel sure that I've succeeded when I share with an audience and see and feel the lightbulbs turning on in their hearts and minds.
Over the years, I've come to believe that the stories that endure across the years -- or the centuries and millennia in some cases -- are the ones that speak to core human issues that remained largely unchanged "across time": love, loss, heroism, stupid mistakes (including heroic ones), and learning hard lessons (or providing them to others through our own examples). These shared experiences reinforce our ties with those who came before us and those who will follow. The story of Christ has been described as "the greatest story ever told", but it's really just one compelling chapter in the larger story of all people, everywhere. And it, like Sophocles before it and Shakespeare afterwards, endures because it establishes a visceral sense of empathy with other people in other times. I often wonder how much of today's fiction meets that test, and will endure beyond its short run on the Times bestseller list.
Reading about the experience of some of the actors in the plays reminded me of why I love to teach, and why I don't do Webinars or other forms of online learning -- which is undoubtedly similar to why the best actors prefer to "strut and fret their time upon the stage" (to modify the Bard's wording) rather than to appear on TV or in the movies: live acting creates an intense emotional connection with the audience and in the best scripts, whether tragedy or comedy, there's a shared understanding of something profound. It's the actor's gift to be able to cause that understanding and empathy to blossom in the hearts and minds of their audience, while sharing that moment of connection over a shared experience.
TV versus stage, and Webinar versus in-person lecture, are like the difference between masturbation and lovemaking: without the connection, the experience may be pleasant, but it is greatly impoverished. (And like all similes and metaphors, I hasten to add that this one should not be extrapolated beyond its immediate and surface meaning.) When I'm not just telling a story, I occasionally aspire to make that connection in my writing, but I only feel sure that I've succeeded when I share with an audience and see and feel the lightbulbs turning on in their hearts and minds.