Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - A Story
August 12, 2017 (Approximately 5 years ago)
Help came from the most unlikely of sources. I was taking a literature subject in my 1st year in which we were studying the elements of story: setting, conflict, climax, and resolution.
The odd thought occurred to me while I was studying that we didn't know where the elements of story come from. I mean, we might have a guy's name who thought of them, but we don't know why they exist. I started wondering why the heart and mind responded to this specific formula when it came to telling stories. So I broke it down. Setting: That was easy; every story has a setting. My setting is Philippines, on earth. I understand setting because I experience setting. I am sitting in a room, in a house, I have other characters living in this house with me, that sort of thing. The reason my heart understood setting was because I experienced setting.
But then there was conflict. Every good story has conflict in it. Some conflict is internal, some is external, but if you want to write a novel that sells, I guess you need to have a conflict. We understand conflict because we experience conflict, but where does conflict come from? Why do we experience conflict in our lives? This helped me a great deal in accepting the idea of a sin and the birth of conflict. The rebellion as an adult explained why humans experienced conflict in their lives, and nobody knows of any explanation other than this. Conflict is a thing that we don't want to experience, yet we were forced to experience it. Maybe faith wants us to experience it so we did. In a story conflict starts how the plot go well, but in reality this is somehow we wanted to avoid with.
The heart responds to conflict within story, I began to think, because there is some great conflict in the universe with which we are interacting, even if it is only in the subconscious. If we were not experiencing some sort of conflict in our lives, our hearts would have no response to conflicts in books or film. The idea of conflict, of having tension, suspense, or an enemy, would make no sense to us. But these things do make sense. We understand these elements because we experience them, As much as I did not want to admit it, our own encounter and experience explained why.
And then the element of story known as climax. Every good story has a climax, but to me this was the starting point of scarifying part. If human heart uses the tools of reality to create elements of story, and the human heart responds to climax in the structure of story, this means that climax, or point of decision, could very well be something that exists in the universe. What I mean is that there is a decision the human heart needs to make and this also connects the the thread of conflict.
Lastly the resolution. If someone will have to put it, maybe they will prefer the better resolution, or maybe the opposite one, but in our journey, as human, we can't able to know our resolution nut others can and that's the worst part. I know some of you can already understand this well, as silly as it sounds but we will have our own resolution, as if it was like a children's story. It wasn't cute or neat. It was mystical and odd and clean, and it was reaching into dirty. There was wonder in it and enchantment.
"Perhaps, I thought, being adult really was the difference between illusion and magic."
People has started clapping beforehand. I was assigned as the representative of the impromptu story telling in our class. After the presentation I went back to my seat where my group seats.
"That was "wow" Haru." Ron with the sparkling face.
"I was about to cut my breath while standing in front but I saw your face looking at me while opening your mouth. It made me think I just need to tell them a story where the story is in the story. By the way thanks." Replying him while holding my laugh.
"A story where the story is in the story. Man that was cool!" Shin with also a sparkling face.
"Dude, you should shave your mustache, I can barely see it 3 meters apart." Replying to Shin while holding my laugh because the class was still going.
"Dude, I just gave you a complement and that's what you will pay to me? give me back my words of praise! Wait... you think so? my mustache? man it feels like I've been bad-mouthed by someone" Shin with a disappointing face.
"I am bad mouthing you." Again, holding my laugh to avoid class interruption.
After the whole presentation, in the end we get the second highest score. The girl that was on my group, Claire, who's good at math seems to have an interest in interacting with the three of us, but Ron and Shin hesitated to approach her since she's too quite so I've been pushed to throw some questions by my self.
"What did you think of the lecture?" I once asked here.
"I thought it was okay."
"Just okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I mean, this is supposed to be a minor subject but it feels like it was a major. I hope they don't put the cookies on a lower shelf all year."
"Cookies?" I asked. I thought she had cookies.
"Yeah, what do you mean?" She replied.
"No, it's nothing"
"Hmmm? You thought of something other "cookies" aren't you?" She smirked.
"Man I thought i could escape the situation." I said it while laughing in shame.
"Class is almost done hold it while you still can." She smiled.
"No, I mean, how do I put it, it's not that I'm hung—" I stopped when Claire stared at me.
"W-what?"
"Nope, it's nothing i never thought you were a funny one." She smiled again.
"Huh?"
"Don't worry I get it." She turn around and listen to our professor again.
"If you say you already get it then I guess there's no need for me to explain then."
That was only the long talk I had with Claire, I suppose it would.
After that, we finally take our leave after doing our assignment in the classroom cleaning. Later on while Ron, Shin and me was about to leave, Claire said something before she goes home.
"Haru."
"Yes?" I was surprised while she called me.
"If you want cookies... I might bring some for you tomorrow." She smiled while walking away.
And then at the edge of a thread of light, where everything feels dull, emptiness, and regrets...
The traitor...
The anxious...
The pain...
The loneliness...
It's all coming back...
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