Am I a Narrative Girl After All??
I always sell myself as this avant-garde / documentary, anti-narrative type. Despite this label, I think I am coming around to appreciate some of the finer things of traditional storytelling, namely the resolution of narrative closure. This doesn't mean that something has to have a happy ending, but it does have to have AN ending.
This will be brief because I am optimistically chugging along on my classical film theory paper (due tomorrow night and feeling good at 12:45 on Sunday). But anyway, as I was saying, last night I learned to play Texas Hold 'Em poker. Now, I don't watch the poker shows on TV and maybe if I did, I would be
more into this craze. I don't think this is the game for me. One thing I especially don't like about it is that many hands simply end without any real kind of resolution - people go around and bet and bluff until everyone quits - for the majority of the hands, you never get to see the other players's cards. Most of the game-play consists of people throwing money into the middle of the table and systematically winning without "doing" anything or constructing a good hand. Last night, I kept getting lousy cards, I lost my $5 quickly, and the game just didn't pull me in. I am sure there are levels of nuance and strategy that make the game very rewarding, but even if I don't profit monetarily, I like the instantaneous pay-off of seeing a good hand, instantly knowing when I've fallen pray to someone's clever bluff, or at least what other people are holding. I imagine this is exactly what makes the "celebrity poker" fun - aside from the celebrity factor - that the little hidden cameras allow you to see when someone's bluffing, what someone is raising on, and really enjoy the betting that ensues. So again, like we see with so many things, real life doesn't quite live up to its televised counterpart.
While I am singing the praises of narrative - I'll extend my deep-psychological predisposition to the need for closure / resolved-ness to my real life experiential episodes. One of the things I always struggle to make sense out of is the way that narratives
sometimes play themselves out in real life. For example, you take a certain event / interaction. You see in such interaction the seeds for a longer, extended narrative - like you go into a job interview and meet the boss that will eventually be cast in a significant role in your life story - or you do something with the intention of a big pay-off later down the line. Sometimes, however, you are mistaken. Plot lines are abruptly dropped without causal explanations (almost like when a show you like is cancelled from the line-up and the characters and storyline is forever condemned to limbo). Anyway, some things in life are marked by a frustrating inertia at the moment, and I find myself questioning if certain plotlines will ever bear fruit or just fall by the wayside.
I recognize that this is a forced, but apt analogy, like the poker game, if I don't get to see what people are holding in their hands soon, I'm just going to sit on the couch and read fashion magazines and let other people ante up.
------------------
After the game broke up around 1:30am, Eric and I went to last call at the Swedish after-hours club. I met more people "in the know" and enjoyed the scene that has organically sprouted in the narrow artful corridors...
posted by lmjasinski at 12:35 PM
