I want to post these intake logs on a monthly or semimonthly basis with the primary objective of extracting emergent trends and insights from my recent media consumption. It’s difficult to string together this recent epoch, but I’ve made a few notable (re)discoveries in the “storytelling fundamentals” domain.
I’ve been exploring narrative since early adolescence and I find the field’s lack of gold-standard pedagogy and vocabulary somewhat confounding. Among my personal analyses and experience, film school education, large volumes of reading, and YouTube binges I’ve noticed tremendous disparity within and across culture- and medium- specific narrative theory and terminology. However congruent cross-canonical components may appear, shit gets complicated quick. For instance, how do you define an act? How do acts work in literature vs. films? Seriously, what the fuck is an act? Sure, Joe Campbell (via C. Jung) may have laid some foundations, but technical exploration of narrative remains a young, disjointed field.
Lit. I’m Liking
The Safety of Objects, A.M. Homes
Ten or so years ago, I picked up this short story anthology on (my favorite YA author) Ned Vizzini’s recommendation. Homes’ core strength is her ability to pirouette endings, offering readers a firm sense of completion without explicit plot-resolution. Chekov said that “the role of the artist is to ask better questions, not answer them.” Homes’ finales pose beautiful, satisfying inquiries.
Would You Please Be Quiet, Please?, Raymond Carver
Surreal (or perhaps ultra-real) bedtime stories for adults, really. Carver infuses Homes-adjacent pirouettes with lifelike dialogue.
Podcasts / YouTube
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, S4: E81 – Questioning Sam Harris
I’m a Stan of both Harrison and Peterson, and since their initial debates in ~2018, I’ve longed for them to bridge their particular philosophical née epistemological gap, (a gap that to me appears to be primarily linguistic), at least pertaining to the reconciliation of secular and spiritual truths. In this conversation, I’m stoked to see them converge on core tenets: the necessity of brute facts / faith, nested value structures, and belief systems to contextualize mystical experience. (Forgo Peterson’s neo-Jungian bent, this podcast isn’t particularly relevant to the technicalities of narrative.)
Abbie Emmons’ YouTube Channel
A slightly younger and dramatically less secure version of me cringes at my appreciation of Abbie Emmons, (akin to my relationship with Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic). I’m categorically not-her-fucking-demographic, but her technical breakdowns are ultra practical and suffused with mesmerizing YouTube-variety-sincere Zoomer charisma. I enjoy watching her videos at double speed and being beat over the head with precise conceptualizations of and heuristics for character formation, world building, 3 act structure, etc.
Movies
Beat, (Korea, 1997) Kim Sung-su
It’s difficult to get a grasp on (90’s) Asian gangster film sensibility. Beat is a two-hander friendship flick that left me with a rather nihilistic first impression. Still processing the construction of these characters, the protagonist’s indecision as the primary internal conflict of film. It’s streaming for free on Tubi.
Friend, (Korea, 2001) Kwak Kyung-taek
Another Korean mob-friendship movie, this one far more life-affirming (ew). Again remarkable to me how cultural sensibilities render the themes of a story somewhat opaque or disorienting to me. Structural nuts and bolts align nicely nonetheless.
(Dis)Honorable Mentions
Siddartha, Herman Hesse (Novel)
Though not lacking in little bouts of wisdom and insight, I find Siddartha to air more on the side of pop-folk. Feel like it was written to be adapted into a late 80s animated feature.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, (1961) Blake Edwards
Saw this for the first time, solo, in the theater on Valentine’s Day. It’s awesome except when the real phony gets with the needy artist at the end.
Jeen-Yuhs, (2022) Coodie & Chike
Was reluctant to watching this behemoth until my mother of all people suggested we do so together. Remarkable footage, B- filmmaking, but a very generous and patient portrait of West (and perhaps, more importantly, his mother).