I often wonder whether the world really has that many things we need to reach a conclusion about.
Raise a problem and recommend what "should" be done.
When something goes wrong, immediately pin down a cause, or pin it on someone's responsibility.
Was that even necessary in the first place?
Of course, if you don't quickly reach a conclusion and take action, nothing changes.
I understand how important that is.
What I'm writing about is whether we're asked too much to make things "work as a story."
I finally watched Jimen-shi recently. It was entertaining enough, but I kept feeling off in places.
For example, the detective character played by Eliza Ikeda. Did that role really need to exist?
(※ Not a criticism of Eliza Ikeda — I mean the role itself felt unnecessary.)
"A hot-blooded young detective who wants a glamorous assignment and is a bit dissatisfied with a quiet desk, but starts to feel purpose while working the land-fraud case — then her partner dies.
As she gets closer to the heart of the case, she asks the lead, played by Go Ayano, whether things can stay like this." Roughly that arc — and the role felt like it got in the way.
The ending, too: a mysterious space and a flashy fistfight.
They probably put it in because the expression they wanted required it — but at least for fiction based on a real estate scam, did we need that human drama there?
Isn't it too beautiful as a story?
Having to make something beautiful as a story doesn't mean the conclusion has to be beautiful — it means the story needs a beginning, middle, and end.
TV talent and influencers exist inside shows funded by corporate ad spend, so the pressure toward "easy to understand" and "compliance locked down to avoid bad press" makes sense as a force of the industry.
Is Netflix the same?
Novels I've read lately do it too — forced plot stitches and endings that made me go "hmm."
Making something beautiful as a story — if you abstract that out — the world probably doesn't have that many things that need a conclusion to hold together.
In my second year of university I applied to a roughly two-week summer internship at a big company. About three of us, including me, were put into a group discussion where we had to show our lives so far on a life chart and talk about them.
One student picked "an episode of getting through a sad incident that hit me in my student years." In that moment I felt, "Ah, I'm already out."
I don't know how that student did, but at least I wasn't selected.
Of course, the experience of working hard in that situation matters — and my track record at the time was nothing, so I was probably just rejected for being a mess.
Still, there was probably a non-zero side of it being a game you win the moment you have a beautiful story. (In the end, having an episode mattered less than how convincingly you could talk like you had one.)
More recently: elections happen, and all kinds of social problems get raised.
Plenty of problems are too big for individuals or the private sector, so those should be political challenges.
But most of them will only get recommended or stirred up, and resolving them will stay hard.
Media that treat "journalistic spirit" as an end in itself — recommending for the sake of recommending — just exhaust me to watch.
They're like commercials made to win a world advertising contest.
The only people who celebrate are the creative directors who can use it as a portfolio piece, and the companies they belong to.
A few threads scattered and this isn't tidy, but roughly what I wanted to say is this.
Whoever you are, trying to imagine someone else's situation, trying to understand, and taking action to solve something — that matters and is wonderful. But the things that actually call for that should be few.
At least: there's nothing to gain from hastily concluding, blaming someone, or venting emotion to correct someone's behavior.
On those topics, it's fine not to think about them at all. Having no stance is totally OK.
p.s.
Lately my head hasn't been in good shape.
But even in that state, writing and putting something out still matters — I'll go ahead and conclude that.
© 2024 ZUUHE