Drama Becomes Life Becomes Drama

It’s a human need: drama becomes life becomes drama.

“People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began,” Kurt Vonnegut declared. “The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories.”

Time versus Happiness

Vonnegut used a graph to illustrate a rising and falling story arc. The Time axis ran from left to right, Happiness from bottom to top. Vonnegut was able to plot any story against the Time/Happiness index to show how people gain satisfaction from dramatic structures.

Cinderella story

Cinderella has a rising and falling story arc that we know well. Vonnegut observed “people LOVE that story! This story arc has been written a thousand times in a thousand tales. And because of it, people think their lives are supposed to be like this.”

Disaster story

This is why the media makes compelling drama from everyday stories. On an ordinary day in an ordinary town; a child falls down a well. The town gathers for the rescue effort. Setting aside old grudges in the effort to save the child, there are breakthroughs and setbacks. The story plays out accompanied by a ticking clock. The community unites to save the child.

It could be a dog or an elderly person down the well; sixty-four workers down a mine, or thirteen schoolboys in a cave. Life imitates art in the dramatic structure of disaster and rescue.

In Real life

In normal life, the majority of people experience few events so dramatic. These intense moments of drama provide relief from the hum-drum ordinariness of daily life

“…because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story arcs in books and movies, we think our lives are supposed to be filled with huge ups and downs! So people pretend there is drama where there is none,” Vonnegut claimed.

A trip to the mall becomes an epic journeys of adversity. A doctor’s appointment takes on life-and-death importance. Sports men and women become our gladiators in the arena.

Our little ups and downs become epics of legendary proportions. Searching for meaning and some kind of immortality, we try to make our lives into a fairy tale. It’s what humans do. Drama becomes life becomes drama.