Nonstories And Parasociality

17 8月 2024

i was talking to a friend about how parasociality (i.e. the audience is so "connected" to the performers they've been watching that they think they've become friends) is a horrible experience. it can objectify the performer into a "character". any move enacted by the performer that isn't "in character" is worthy of reprimanding by the audience because the audience believes they know the performer better than the performer does.

there's a character role the performer must follow. these expectations are often unwritten, bu the performer must regardless play alongside with the audience if they want to "succeed". this is debilitating and harmful for the performer.

and it reminds me of NonStories...

one of the big central ideas about NonStories is that every character has been designated a role that they must follow. however, the characters often break the roles and even the audience expectations.

every character is treated as fully realized people with their own agencies. they don't need to bow down to formulas laid by some creator. no matter how precisely formulated the plans are, characters can break out of the structure and become something else.

there can even be characters who you think you know for so long but will turn out differently depending on the paths they take. these characters cannot be reduced to objects or traits; they are sentient as far as the story is concerned and can become someone entirely different.

indeed, some of the major violence is caused by the story trying to make the characters follow a set path. they resist the forces and will do everything they can do to get their own way, their own life, etc.

in this light, i see parasociality as the same kind of narrativizing/characterizing (and therefore reactionary) force found in NonStories. no wonder performers often struggle: unlike the characters in NonStories, they are actual people who want to break out of pigeonholes and stereotypes.

they want to be seen as people, not characters.

how can audiences see performers as people? i'm not sure, but i think NonStories suggests that we need to be open to them doing different kinds of shit. rather than scolding them for experimenting with their performance, i think we should encourage them and let them figure out what they want to do.

this means a total reconfiguration of how audiences should think. they can't think a performer's oeuvre can create a narrative that they find comfort in. they need to realize each performance is indeed interdependent but in a chaotic way that can suddenly break expectations. a narrative ossifies/reifies a human being into a bunch of tropes that can be cataloged in a database. i think we can do better than that.

anyway, play UnExist and NonStories. bye.