The Story of Ugh

I loved this paragraph from chapter 8 on page 267: "Stephen Greenblatt (1998) notes that the Starr report offers the reader many of the pleasures of classic fiction: the narrator's apologies for a lubricious tale; time-honored plot devices (the lovers find each other first through mutual eye contact, as in Ovid or Petrarch); the moves of the skilled novelist--Balzac, James, or Eliot--..."

We, as individuals placed in a society revolving around movies, television, plays and novels, create second lives for ourselves based on the characters portrayed. By watching movies and tv shows, I create illusionary events and scenarios in my mind. I sometimes place myself in a character's life; sometimes I change how I would react to certain occurences, change the course of events, but mostly I pretend I am truly that character. Sometimes I even bring this illusionary thinking into my real world. I remember when I broke up with one of my ex-boyfriends. I did it and left walking very slowly down his hallway (he lived in his own apartment), hoping for him to run after me, sweep me back into his arms and tell me he couldn't bear losing me. Well, it almost happened like that. He did run out after me & he did bring me into his arms, and we did get back together (but it only lasted a few weeks after that). But it was an image I had created from watching the many movies and soap operas and I placed it within the context of my own life, silly as it may sound.

I do believe many individuals, especially females, act in similar fashions. People see it in movies all the time: the break-up, the way one feels when seeing one's girlfriend or boyfriend or ex, the way one feels when losing a loved one, the way one feels when getting beaten up... We see these portrayals on a daily basis and there are so many different ones out there that when one of these events happens to us, there is most definitely one that will seem perfectly fit to our situation; describes our exact emotions, reactions and words.

It seems almost impossible not to compare an event in our lives to one in a movie, tv show or book. Admit it, I know each and every one of us has, or will, at some point throughout our lives!