Understimulated
Jan. 15th, 2010 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueOne of the classic approaches to narrative is to come up with a set of characters and then put them through hell until they reveal their true selves. This shows up all over American literature, whether in John Ford westerns or Kurt Vonnegut novels. A central myth of the military is that because you have put your life on the line, you know who you are in a special and rarefied way.
I tend to resist the idea that people reveal themselves more accurately under stress, just as I don't think there is a particular honesty to drunkenness. The concept of a "true self" across all circumstances is not one I've seen much evidence for; it's suspiciously close to the fuzzy idea of eternal souls. I've also noticed that most of the honest, true, revelatory experiences are historically linked to a masculine identity, which is enough to raise a womanly (mysterious, secretive, self-unaware) eyebrow.
However, it cannot be denied that people under stress accurately reveal how they behave under stress, and it turns out that I don't like how most people behave under stress. On the one hand, I myself am doing well, and on the other, I want to hole up until March at least, drinking tea out of attractive cups and reading masterpieces by people I will never meet and be disappointed in.
I tend to resist the idea that people reveal themselves more accurately under stress, just as I don't think there is a particular honesty to drunkenness. The concept of a "true self" across all circumstances is not one I've seen much evidence for; it's suspiciously close to the fuzzy idea of eternal souls. I've also noticed that most of the honest, true, revelatory experiences are historically linked to a masculine identity, which is enough to raise a womanly (mysterious, secretive, self-unaware) eyebrow.
However, it cannot be denied that people under stress accurately reveal how they behave under stress, and it turns out that I don't like how most people behave under stress. On the one hand, I myself am doing well, and on the other, I want to hole up until March at least, drinking tea out of attractive cups and reading masterpieces by people I will never meet and be disappointed in.
