The Sequel to Subverting Expectations: Meta Media, Multiverses, Memberberries and Nostalgia Bait - A New Trend for 2022 (Spiderman and Matrix Spoilers within, be Warned)

[Secret Asshole]

Do it.

It has been done:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/secret...s-to-storytelling.109918/page-3#post-10947874

 

[GoPro]

There's been some gabbering about this in the movienight chat for the last year, but the theory I tend to lean heavily on is that, up until fairly recently, most people's experiences in life were based on real events that were actually quite spectacular. The great Depression, World War 2, big disasters, smaller conflicts, the pervasive threat of nuclear war, all very compelling human experiences that, though they don't necessarily teach you anything, they're still likely to very strongly influence your worldview. Modern writers were mostly raised with pop culture forming a disproportionate part of their upbringing instead of any real experiences. I know a lot of them are sheltered rich kids and other assorted assholes who already have a distorted perspective, but this is a universal problem.

Modern writing is filled with references, rehashes and cliches because its literally all some people know. There was an old article i read some time back, I'll have to find it again, complaining that "modern" movies of the 70s and 80s had stale literary references always referring back to the same cliched books because people read less books than ever before, so the reference would repeat themselves endlessly. Well now we're at a point where most people don't read books, and if they do its always the same pretentious trash nine times out of ten.

Most of the experiences people have in the real world these days is working a shitty retail/office job, spending way too much time in a classroom, or being some kind of shill or attentionwhore, or being some dickhead with an opinion that people listen to because so many people are thoughtless fucking wrecks. For everything that doesn't cover, they fill in the gaps with the media they were saturated with growing up. And as time goes on this process only magnifies as people become less adventurous and more sheltered and have even less to base their lives on.

Most people write what they know, but just about all this generation knows is more media. So on and on the references go, because the writers literally can't do anything else, even if they want to.

History didn't stop, and we still have major events taking place. China's rise, Middle Eastern conflicts, growth of the internet, invasion of Ukraine, rise of mass surveillance, development of autonomous vehicles, pandemic, increasingly strained relationship between the U.S., China, and Russia are all events with significant impact. I don't think that lack of things happening is an issue. Many past writers used to be homebodies, sheltered aristocrats, or decadent upper class socialites. The last two always made the biggest chunk of people in fine arts. It's not something unique to our present day.

I do agree with the part on narrowing portion of pop culture taking up a bigger scope of people's lives each generation and its effects. It seems like out of the current crop of creators in Anglo-sphere, most of them are interested only in:
- stories from the medium they are working in
- other mainstream entertainment products, usually related to their main medium or genre in some way
- politics
- discussions about the above
These are the four things many creators devote their free time to. Their minds are exposed to a limited range of ideas that they process, put in their work, others process them, and the cycle goes on. Each pass has less substance than the one before, and popular culture is stuck in this human centipede mode. I think that consolidation of media companies and socioeconomic factors are to blame for the above trend. Anglo-sphere is not the only one affected, but it's especially bad based on my limited understanding of foreign media.

Any aspiring creator can counteract this and make up for a lack of unique life experience by expanding their horizons. This can be done by enjoying wide array of media and by developing hobbies.
A good example of this are mangakas. They spend most of their time locked in studios drawing manga. If you read or watch interviews with ones producing good work, you will notice that they usually consume a variety of media and have actual hobbies far outside of manga and pop culture. It all informs their work, and that's why you see a healthy amount of originality in manga.
The American comic book industry is on the other end of the spectrum. Marvel and DC ruled it for decades, and most published material belonged to a single genre. Contemporary comic authors know little outside of superhero comics and mainstream pop culture. Everything they write has been influenced by a narrow scope of media and interests. American comic book industry is the most extreme example of media's decline.

If you are a writer or creative in general, do yourself a favor and try something new. Most good and interesting creators stray off the beaten path. Scorsese is influenced by old Polish arthouse films. Miura (creator of Berserk) was a fanboy of European medieval, Renaissance and early 20th century art. Chuck Jones (creator of Bugs Bunny and other classic WB cartoons) was an avid book reader. Edgar Allan Poe was interested in cosmology and cryptography. Mark Twain was obsessed with boats and rivers, and he loved talking to people for talking's sake.


Thanks for the writing course thread. I am not much of a writer, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.