While reading this week's lecture, I enjoyed the connection of storytelling to philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Confucius etc. It reenforced the importance of storytelling and how long it had been used to narrative an experience or fictional entertainment to a group. Aristotle describes "Narrative" as having 7 elements: plot, characters, theme, dialogue, rhythm, and spectacle.
All being necessary to create an effective narrative experience. Confucius's perspective on narration is that there are 4 goals of expression and "that is to inspire a mood, to get people to contemplate, to give warmth to life and to regulate feelings." Then Myths make its way into the topic as one of the main ways societies are able to pass down traditions, cultures and languages. it is mentioned that myths are created to make sense of the real world. This is an interesting statement in that you would have to pull from the real world in order create the myth you are using to make sense of it.
In Elizabeth Chin's My Life With Things , Chin writes about her attachment to "things" and how she was unconsciously contributing to her daughter's future obsession with "things". What would life be without things? Is there even a possibility to live without all of the tools, gadgets and stuff we have that make life easier to navigate? And then there's capitalism which speaks without explanation. It's funny how simple interactions with a child can reveal many things about yourself. Simply teaching a child how to interact/socialize with others or engaging with objects such as toys etc. can be eye-opening when it comes to thinking about your own life and how you've acquired the habits you practice.
The short stories I chose to read were Stars and The Yellow Raincoat. Both stories explained an attachment to some thing or concepts. Stars alluded to the obsession with space and what could possibly be beyond what we've already explored. One line that stuck with me is "The Paradox of a Universe that can't go on forever but can never end. it's one of those lines that have a dizzying effect where you try to solve for both sides but you can never come up with an answer that solves for both sides.