The Lie That Every Story Has In Common - Kurt Vonnegut On The Shapes of Stories

In this video, we look at author Kurt Vonnegut's analysis of the shapes of stories, and what they suggest about our experience and consideration of life. Of course, not every story lies, but in a sense, most do.

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[Palatino]

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." What an amazing quote that is.

[Cyrptic_VIL_]

The difference between *fiction* and *reality, is that fiction* has to make *sense* .

[biffbifford]

Life is a cruel teacher. She gives you the test first, and the lesson later.

[amirmagar]

“The most important time is right now, the most important person is the person with you at the moment, the best deed you can do is do them good.” - Leo Tolstoy ( The Three Questions)

[SolaceEasy]

My life has not been a flatline. It hasn't felt like a lie either. One thing happens. Then another thing happens. Whether or not you judge it good bad or indifferent in the moment, your perspective can change on the event over time and swing wildly between the three possibilities.

[vernai_]

"The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" - Alan Watts

[poweroffriendship.]

_"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."_

*~ Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five)*

[vermeer]

"There was once a farmer in ancient China who owned a horse. “You are so lucky!” his neighbours told him, “to have a horse to pull the cart for you.” “Maybe, ” the farmer replied.

One day he didn’t latch the gate properly and the horse ran off. “Oh no! What a disaster!” his neighbours cried. “Such terrible misfortune!” “Maybe, ” the farmer replied.

A few days later the horse returned, bringing with it six wild horses. “How fantastic! You are so lucky, ” his neighbours told him. “Now you are rich!” “Maybe, ” the farmer replied.

The following week the farmer’s son was breaking-in one of the wild horses when it kicked out and broke his leg. “Oh no!” the neighbours cried, “such bad luck, all over again!” “Maybe, ” the farmer replied.

The next day soldiers came and took away all the young men to fight in the war. The farmer’s son was left behind. “You are so lucky!” his neighbours cried. “Maybe, ” the farmer replied." - Zhuangzi, Taoist mystic

[spiderlime]

i think that the word "lie" here is misleading, however unintentionally: while it's true that many plot structures in many stories are much clearer than reality, and less morally ambigous, that in itself is not a lie: that is a technical nessecity. literature still does explore our humanity and psyche. it's an exploration of values and inspirations. "a story about dragons is important not because dragons are real but because dragons can be beaten". chesterton,

[ms.annemartina]

I forgot where I heard it, but a good way of putting it is that stories aren’t meant to be true in the way of imitating reality but instead they reveal emotional truths. People don’t really ever fall down rabbit holes or get happily ever afters but sometimes things in our lives feel cataclysmic and consuming that we can only make sense of them through stories because stories are neater whereas real life is messy. We can’t always know what’s going to negativity or positivity affect us in real life but stories have a structure so we can get glimpses of having that knowledge. This is turning into an essay of second hand ideas that I’m poorly explaining so I’m gonna stop now haha

[ErraticMagics]

Real life has its ups and downs as well; only on a much shorter time scale. From far away the line will appear flat, but close in it's far more bumpy.

[juliann]

"It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5.

[vulnerablerummy]

1:10 : most stories end with the protagonist higher on the axis then where they started


Kafka : *Hold my non-existent happy ending*

[jai.joylove]

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself" -- Soren Kierkegaard

I felt that quote goes extremely well with the Joseph Campbell one mentioned in the video.

[bingbongjoel]

“I think, therefore your mom gay”

Damn. That quote will stick with me till my last breathe.

[jacobarmour]

I love pursuit of wonder you make my day coming home from school and embarking on a journey of philosophical discovery

[uohoxpf]

Whoever writes these videos is way too talented to be this underrated

[Jumpingpig]

The graph of A Series of Unfortunate Events be like *not stonks* 📉

[jlinus]

My life has been a series of highs and lows. I just don't know where it's going to end and that doesn't matter because every memory and event no matter how painful is an experience I have lived and I'm grateful for it

[TheJollyMisanthrope]

Escapism that tries to accurately portray reality would be somewhat pointless.