by Prachi Mahima
Art imitates life or life imitates art?
Stories have been a part of life since the beginning of civilization. Although the exact beginning of the art of creating and narrating stories cannot be ascertained, scholars agree that it must have begun since the discovery of speech, but even before the concepts of culture, society, religion, or government existed. Back then, narratives were used by people to communicate the facts and truths of the immediate environment they lived in, and for all the inexplicable entities and occurrences in nature. The question is how did we become what we are today the beings of a divided world with different cultures and different beliefs? The answer is right in front of us. These stories became the building blocks of our societies. Our life is pervaded by fiction in all forms. It had its own evolution, starting orally, turning literary, and finally throttling into its existence in the form of books and visual forms, as we see it today.
The fact that fiction carves reality by molding basic units of the human psychethoughts form the base of our queries about existence. In fact, science agrees that stories, not facts are behind the evolution of civilizations. It may seem weird to attribute the complete evolution of mankind to something that is not even real, but the perspective that reality itself is an illusion sets things right. Almost all of us have shed a tear or become gloomy after an exceedingly emotional movie or book. So, the question is how can something which is only a creation of a human mind affect the whole emotional set-up in reality. The answer lies in the saying Art imitates life’. Every artist who creates an imaginary world refers to reality as the backdrop, drawing on both the past and present. Any television series, movie or novel, explores those realms which are familiar, to lay down new ideas, thereby making it easier to believe and accept. The stories of characters who are just like us help us understand their perspective better.
How narratives are changing in the era of Social Media
This generation thrives on the concept of love and relationships. Social media is flooded with posts about relationships, heartbreaks and pain. But there was once a society where the idea of love did not even exist. Girls married for a secure life and men, for procreation. The thread connecting the two eras as past and present is creative fiction. Writers and film-makers created realistic stories and ultimately made generation after generation believe in the theory of romantic relationships among humans. If the characters who are just like us, with similar struggles are portrayed as happy in a particular situation, maybe that situation needs to become reality. That is how this world works. Against that background, with wars raging between cultures and countries, rapes happening every minute, racism ruining lives, gay and LGBT communities cast out, we require art to be the mediator instead of laying down raw facts in front of people waiting for them to make morally correct decisions. For instance, if we change the story to where black skin is beautiful, not white, perspective will ultimately change. The procedure is time-taking but effective nevertheless. Innocent people who become victims of societal prejudices can be saved.
Psychologically, stories transfer us to worlds where things work differently than our reality. We see things differently, we gain access to a new line of thought and with life-like characters, it becomes easy to re-configure views. Reading novels or watching movies is a complete experience in itself. Like, while watching Titanic, you are not a person sitting inside your bedroom in front of a laptop but instead you are there on the ship, feeling all the fear and panic, watching people die and feeling the heavy loss ultimately. It takes a while to explain to the brain it was all a story. Fiction helps broaden the exploration of human emotions. Artists play a major role in bringing actual change by striking emotions instead of just the mind of the reader/viewer. Research studies have time and again proven that those who indulge in fiction more, are more empathetic and it is no doubt that our society needs empathetic people with open minds today. Lifestyle, culture everything changes when we walk a mile in the shoes of imaginary characters who look differently at things. To surmise, we can help ourselves by changing our approach. Then, we can imagine a peaceful co-existence that is our ultimate aim. Art will save when all technology might fail.
Prachi Mahima is a writing analyst at Qrius