Good evening to all. I realize I've been absent for the past few months but you see, that's the thing with inspiration. It's never there when you need it. In an attempt to overcome this writer's block, I thought I would share a few things that have occurred to me, when comparing real life to fiction (and more specifically, TV drama).
Within this fictional series I lost myself in the past few days there was a group of people that liked to call each other "friends", "family", or more than that, and most of them were rich and wealthy. These people spend their days petting petty schemes against one another in order to overthrow one another. Or it was their own wicked sense of protection towards their loved ones. But eventually, some how some way (usually one person with a handy smartphone being at the right place at the right time), the truth would get out, everyone would get hurt and then they would start all over again.
To these people, blackmail had become a sort of communication. I remember a scene in which a mother locked her daughter in a room with one of the "less fortunate" kids which she had humiliated in the past. The mother told her daughter that she would not unlock the door until she had made amends with the girl. Instead of actually apologizing, the daughter chose to dig up a photo from high-school depicting the girl in a fat dress and threatened to post it online unless the girl had admitted that everything had been settled between them. Forgive me but in my book, that shows twisted behavior even for a fictional character.
But the fictional characters aren't my point here. Heck, it's a TV series, they could've put a dinosaur in the school and it still wouldn't matter. What matters is the correlations between those fictional characters and our real world.
While the series was in it's progress, I couldn't help but notice a pattern: people lied, the truth would come out, people got hurt, people would swear not to make the same mistakes, people lied, etc... I started to think that there was something wrong with them. But there isn't. Who amongst us hasn't said a lie today? Even a less harmful one? And how many of those lies were actually to save our own skin compared to the ones said to protect other people's feelings?
I've never really given it much consideration until now but that's probably what they mean with the phrase "childish innosense". Since when we are young we have not yet learned how to lie. It's not a natural human instinct, and so it takes time to perfect the art. For some more than for others. Until a child enters society and learns that in order to survive he will have to learn how to lie as well. And the less gifted one is at the "performing" arts, the less chances he has of surviving within that society.
Speaking of early societies, there was another pattern I picked up on while watching the series. Well, actually this wasn't so much a pattern as it was a social behavior by the characters that I have found in almost every social group I have been involved in. But, in order for the comparison to work, I will make a personal example with the largest social group I have been involved in myself.
Now, within every cast, there is a protagonist, sometimes two. In this case the protagonist was a young teenage girl that was born and raised spoiled, heir to one of the most wealthy families in her city and admired even by her own peers (which were also spoiled little girls). This young girl (and eventually her best friend) became the nucleus around which her school, her family and her friends circled around. Simply because everyone envied her (or wanted her in their bed). Of course the girl herself was sweet as honey, but if anyone ever tried to hurt her feelings (be it her -so called- b.f.f. or even her own mother) she wouldn't hesitate to use her power to destroy them.
This social behavior isn't a first though. Not in a series, not even in real life. Back in my high-school years, as I recall, there was a girl with long blonde hair all happy and cheerful. And she was popular with the boys (in and out of the school, but that's irrelevant). Eventually she had a whole group of girls that became her "besties". But she was the center. She was school class president.
I've noticed that even in minor groups. If one person decides against going somewhere, suddenly no one else wants to go. There is always a glue that sticks everyone else together, no matter how big or small the group maybe and mo matter the reason one might have for sticking with that glue. Whether it's jealousy or to get to something or to someone, everyone always has their reasons. But really, what is it that defines the "glue" within a group? What is it that defines "popular"?
Within this fictional series I lost myself in the past few days there was a group of people that liked to call each other "friends", "family", or more than that, and most of them were rich and wealthy. These people spend their days petting petty schemes against one another in order to overthrow one another. Or it was their own wicked sense of protection towards their loved ones. But eventually, some how some way (usually one person with a handy smartphone being at the right place at the right time), the truth would get out, everyone would get hurt and then they would start all over again.
To these people, blackmail had become a sort of communication. I remember a scene in which a mother locked her daughter in a room with one of the "less fortunate" kids which she had humiliated in the past. The mother told her daughter that she would not unlock the door until she had made amends with the girl. Instead of actually apologizing, the daughter chose to dig up a photo from high-school depicting the girl in a fat dress and threatened to post it online unless the girl had admitted that everything had been settled between them. Forgive me but in my book, that shows twisted behavior even for a fictional character.
But the fictional characters aren't my point here. Heck, it's a TV series, they could've put a dinosaur in the school and it still wouldn't matter. What matters is the correlations between those fictional characters and our real world.
While the series was in it's progress, I couldn't help but notice a pattern: people lied, the truth would come out, people got hurt, people would swear not to make the same mistakes, people lied, etc... I started to think that there was something wrong with them. But there isn't. Who amongst us hasn't said a lie today? Even a less harmful one? And how many of those lies were actually to save our own skin compared to the ones said to protect other people's feelings?
I've never really given it much consideration until now but that's probably what they mean with the phrase "childish innosense". Since when we are young we have not yet learned how to lie. It's not a natural human instinct, and so it takes time to perfect the art. For some more than for others. Until a child enters society and learns that in order to survive he will have to learn how to lie as well. And the less gifted one is at the "performing" arts, the less chances he has of surviving within that society.
Speaking of early societies, there was another pattern I picked up on while watching the series. Well, actually this wasn't so much a pattern as it was a social behavior by the characters that I have found in almost every social group I have been involved in. But, in order for the comparison to work, I will make a personal example with the largest social group I have been involved in myself.
Now, within every cast, there is a protagonist, sometimes two. In this case the protagonist was a young teenage girl that was born and raised spoiled, heir to one of the most wealthy families in her city and admired even by her own peers (which were also spoiled little girls). This young girl (and eventually her best friend) became the nucleus around which her school, her family and her friends circled around. Simply because everyone envied her (or wanted her in their bed). Of course the girl herself was sweet as honey, but if anyone ever tried to hurt her feelings (be it her -so called- b.f.f. or even her own mother) she wouldn't hesitate to use her power to destroy them.
This social behavior isn't a first though. Not in a series, not even in real life. Back in my high-school years, as I recall, there was a girl with long blonde hair all happy and cheerful. And she was popular with the boys (in and out of the school, but that's irrelevant). Eventually she had a whole group of girls that became her "besties". But she was the center. She was school class president.
I've noticed that even in minor groups. If one person decides against going somewhere, suddenly no one else wants to go. There is always a glue that sticks everyone else together, no matter how big or small the group maybe and mo matter the reason one might have for sticking with that glue. Whether it's jealousy or to get to something or to someone, everyone always has their reasons. But really, what is it that defines the "glue" within a group? What is it that defines "popular"?
