In our Quackcast about Non-Linear storytelling this week, I had a tangent of a thought about the value of difficult or challenging fiction as opposed to stories that are easier to understand.

An unusual structure to a story can be challenging to understand, but if it's done well, the story makes us WANT to stay tuned in to try and understand. The same goes for stories that are challenging in other ways, like understanding what drives characters to say one thing and do another, or what drives them in general. Or understanding a complicated series of events, a mystery or conspiracy or whatever: if the story makes us NEED to know and understand, we are happy to spend the extra effort.

Well, it does for a part of the audience that wants that experience and clicks with it. Some people will tune out. That's the risk of making something that's more challenging to get. Trying to create stories with wide appeal, and “dumbing it down”, so to speak - that has its own risks. It can become bland and boring, and might not leave a lasting impression on most people.

The entertainment I really love might give me positive or negative emotions - there's a lot of attraction to stories that have intense or difficult moments in them for the characters. I think this is because we like giving our negative emotions a little workout. I've talked about that before. And stories with ideas that shake up our minds and shock us in some way, knocking us off balance - that can end up being the kind of story that really stays with us and makes a difference in our brains, and in our lives. I remember feeling that when I first saw Pulp Fiction. I'm not even sure I liked it when I first saw it, but it shocked me, and I just kept watching it over and over (something I often did anyway, with movies I liked), and it's still one of my favorites.

I remember deciding, late in high school, to really dig in to the material we were studying in English class. It happened to be Hamlet, and deciding to work harder than usual at reading it and understanding it (with the help of the footnotes) turned out to be a REALLY satisfying experience. There was a level of pleasure in making an extra effort to understand it.

This applies to other books I've read, too, and some of my favorite shows and movies: Memento, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad…to try and understand the structure of Memento, or Mulholland Drive, and the character motivations and such in ‘Saul and ’Bad - that's the kind of effort that keeps a story floating in my brain for years, or maybe forever.

As much as I fall in love with escapist literature and value it a lot, and that's kind of the stuff I usually write, it's nice to dig in deeper sometimes - granted, some fiction isn't worth digging into that deeply: there's just nothing there at the deeper level. But if it seems to have a strong deeper dimension to it, the extra effort is quite rewarding.

Somehow I feel like nobody reading this needs to hear this, and that you already know it.

But this is what crossed my mind this week, anyway.

See you next time!


________________________

Don't forget! The #quackchat has moved to BlueSky! Join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST)!

You can also advertise on DrunkDuck for just $2 in whichever ad spot you like! The money goes straight into running the site. Want to know more? Click this link here! Or, if you want to help us keep the lights on you can sponsor us on Patreon. Every bit helps us!

Special thanks to our patrons!!














Justnopoint - Banes - RMccool - Abt_Nihil - Gunwallace - PaulEberhardt - Emma_Clare - FunctionCreep - SinJinsoku - Smkinoshita - jerrie - Chickfighter - Andreas_Helixfinger - Tantz_Aerine - Genejoke - Davey Do - Gullas - Roma - NanoCritters - Teh Andeh - Peipei - Digital_Genesis - Hushicho - Palouka - cheeko - Paneltastic - L.C.Stein - dpat57 - Bravo1102 - The Jagged - LoliGen - OrcGirl - Miss Judged - Fallopiancrusader - arborcides - ChipperChartreuse - Mogtrost - InkyMoondrop - Jgib99 - Hirokari - Orgivemedeath Ind - Mks Monsters - GregJ - HawkandFloAdventures - Soushiyo - JohnCelestri- Tottycomics - Casscade - Salexander - Willed - Sketchydrawer - Niccea