Week 4 Lab

For Story Laboratory, I chose to watch the Two Ted Talks over story telling and stories:

The danger of a single story and imaginary friends and real life consequences

The first one talked about the dangers that can come from stories only coming from one culture group. She then continued to talk about how the stories she was told affected how she say people, and how later in life the stories others were told affected how others saw her. I think she's right in the stories that are told and made popular are what influences our view. More stories need to be told from different perspectives to help educate others and let them know that each country isn't held accountable by one thing. I think it's awesome how she was able to put her own experiences about how she had misjudged people based on a narrative she was told too, because it made her more relatable to the audience.

The second Ted Talk was about the relationships that people form with fictional characters whether you watch them on TV or you read about them. She talks about how because we see fictional characters or celebrities so often, we feel like we know them. She even includes the study her and her grad student did comparing fictional friend's deaths to real life acquaintance's deaths. I think the study itself was very interesting and think it says a lot about how close we get to people in fictional situations. When writing, I think it's important to remember that people can fall in love with fictional characters and be actively routing for them and wanting them to succeed. You want people to route for the characters you write about.

Quotes about Fictional Characters from Source