[ExI] EP and sentimentality was songs 2

[hkhenson]

At 10:07 PM 1/6/2008, PJ Manney wrote:
>On Dec 11, 2007 1:14 PM, hkhenson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> > Ok, let's drag out the mental EP microscope and look at
> > sentimentality. Why do some stories affect most people in a highly
> > emotional way?  I have not given this much thought, so take a crack
> > at it and you teach me.  We can start by listing stories and
> > describing common features.
> >
> > I will contribute one, The short story "Leaf by Niggle" by JRR
> > Tolkien. It's impossible for me to read or even to think about
> > without dripping tears.
> >
> > Please play by the EP rules.
>
>I have wanted to address your question for a long time, but like in
>"Leaf by Niggle", Keith, life and creation got in the way.
>
>Here are some ideas (not fleshed out as much as I'd like, but there you go):
>
>The word "sentimentality" is a tough one.  It's very subjective --
>What is it?  And to what people?  Sentimentality is more than empathy.
>  It implies to me a personal relationship, like the one you describe
>with "Leaf by Niggle".  It is often developed in youth,

I first read it in the very late 60s or early 70s.  I was close to 40 
by that time.

>and we know
>when we learn something when we're young, the odds of it affecting us
>in permanent way are much higher.  (Think of the books you read or
>music you listened to -- you taught your brain to like that while your
>brain was still extremely malleable -- or at least more so than it is
>now.)  Or the story resonates with your own early experiences, which
>are more indelibly printed on our minds than later experiences.  We
>can also be hardwired for it, but I'd guess that's more to the general
>flavor of the sentimentality and not the specific instances, which are
>experiential.
>
>I've discussed why we empathize with stories before.
>http://www.pj-manney.com/empathy.html
>And we don't need to list stories to find commonality.  If we take the
>Joseph Campbell approach that there is really only one monomyth, the
>one he calls The Hero's Journey,
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
>then humanity culturally-evolved, simultaneously and in parallel, a
>mythic structure on which to hang all storytelling.  But I believe the
>question you're really asking is 'why this structure?'  That is where
>the EP lies.
>
>So how about this: Like the new theory of dreams, which sees them as
>the mental practice field in which we learn to survive life's hazards
>(hence why nightmare are more common than happy dreams)
>http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20071029-000003.xml
>monomyths could be the mental visualization, the internal practice for
>the arduous life ahead.  The hero starts with his normal life, then
>something happens that changes everything and for which he is not
>fully prepared.  So he must rise to the occasion, conquer the
>villains/demons/etc. and return to his tribe with the prize.  Stories
>teach us survival traits, both practical (how do you run away
>from/kill a monster, outsmart a villain, attract someone so you can
>reproduce, etc.) and behavioral (don't panic or give up, stick
>together, work as a team, don't trust everyone, etc.).
>
>The hero is now us.  The main character is our proxy, going through
>his world, encountering obstacles to his success/happiness/survival
>and having to overcome them.  And we're learning from our easy chair
>what lessons he learned the hard way.
>
>As to the personal reaction to one story versus another -- which I
>think is the sentimentality you speak of -- that's not so much EP as
>personal psychology.  The EP/monomyth reaction is there, for sure.
>But why you weep at "Leaf by Niggle" as opposed to why I weep at
>"Flowers for Algernon" has more to say about us as individuals, how
>we're wired, when we read it and under what circumstances we relate to
>it than anything else.  Like relating to any art form, taste is a
>matter of many variables, some innate and some acquired.

Good points.  Evolution may have made us sensitive to a class of 
stories.  That may be why the Battle of Thermopylae 480 BC echos down 
the years.  But some stories don't have this effect on anyone while 
some are very good at it.

Keith