 If Drama is the Food of Life, Eat On!
Could it be that all the fiction-mythology mumbo-jumbo is just a way that our brains have
found to make up for all that we lack in our lives? Perhaps it's a side effect of a couple
of centuries of rapid industrialization that mankind, a creature that once could dream
when it wished, now has to pay his fellow man to dream for him. Ours used to be a
dangerous planet for man to wander alone, but at least it was fun in its own way. That
meant less demand for exposure to other peoples exciting lives. The challenges that
ordinary life presented forced people to improve themselves - or perish and die. This also
resulted in the necessity of coming up with some way to check if youth was well prepared.
And guess what they came up with? Tests! Ancient cultures performed a more primitive
version of a high school graduation exam called "rite of passage." This involved
youth of the community having their abilities tested, to see if they were worthy of being
accepted as accomplished members of the tribe. Because they didn't have a Ministry of
Education to grade all the exam papers, and there wasn't an exploitable workforce to
produce the tons of paper needed, they invented fun exam-games that involved being exposed
to extreme conditions and facing long periods of unimaginable pain, all alone and without
any support of any kind, other than sheer will and determination. Fun stuff! The idea
behind these arduous journeys was, that through these tasks - which required execution of
skills needed to survive, improvising solutions, and going beyond the accepted limits -
one would develop a better understanding of his abilities and his role in the world.
Journeys and tasks of heroic proportions are recorded in epics, better known for their
dumbed-down cartoon adaptations: Hercules the Muscular and Masculine vs. the 12 tasks;
Theseus, the young Greek hero vs. the big bad Minotaur; and Buddha the Calm vs. spirits
with anger management issues. Interestingly, the notion of performing a series of tasks
and overcoming some major challenge repeats itself in all mythological stories. Not only
in stories of fiction, and Hollywood productions with budgets that could rebuild a city,
but even in our stale and excitement deprived lives. In fact, that's exactly why it
happens.
You see, modern challenges, like the university entrance exam, are not nearly as
enlightening, or pleasantly demanding. But Homo Sapiens are creatures with a hunger for
adventure like no other. If you stretch the definition far enough you could say that these
adventurous journeys with epic battles aren't that different from the reality of our
lives. Although actual realty tends to be bit more, diluted. The demons we face in our
times of trouble do not come in packages that read "Beware! Three headed dangerous
monster from depths of abyss: cook before eating," but follow a more indirect
approach. Ever heard of the art of drama? It's basically building small problems and minor
obstacles into gargantuan proportions so they can be identified and studied better.
Similarly, since well-off people seldom face life-threatening problems, or are even
slightly challenged by the burdens of life, there is a great need to create demons of
drama to stimulate near-life experiences. That way, life seems interesting, and at least
artificially challenging, when life can't come up something else to keep us occupied.
Drama is but a solution we came up with to entertain ourselves, so enjoy it!
Onur Çelik (AMER/II)
o_celik@ug.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr
|
