Storytelling At the Height of Our Heart’s Desire

Storytelling At the Height of Our Heart’s Desire

11.

Stories of impersonal or “physical” conflict can rivet our attention because they show the object of our most basic natural impulse, life, in dire jeopardy. Walter Mitty has to contend with the enormous, albeit comical, physical challenges of trekking across the world in order to find Sean O’Connell.

But Walter Mitty is not just about impersonal conflict. It is doubtful that there are many stories of a hero or heroine’s battle with impersonal forces which solely concern this level of conflict. Walter Mitty’s central conflict is not with the ardors of the Himalayas, but with his desire for love and a sense of his own genuine greatness. His real conflicts are personal and inter-personal.

In Gravity, Dr. Ryan Stone wants to return safely to earth. But she also needs to rediscover the purpose of her life, lost after the death of her little girl. Part of what makes Gravity so successful as a story is that Stone’s efforts to reach the primary goal, staying alive, break open her deeper need for meaning. Her desire to remain alive is obviously a natural one, but her desire for meaning is discovered to be a deeper desire of her nature.

The higher storytelling reaches into the inclinations of our shared human nature–I’m consciously switching my metaphor here from “depth” to “height”— the more that story’s capacity to resonate with us.

The thrill of watching our hero survive a car chase is one level of entertainment. That of watching our hero ascend into the highest reaches of his heart’s desire, as Dante does in the Divine Comedy, is quite another.