Jumping the shark and other strange fictions
So I was watching Will Ferrel's movie, Stranger Than Fiction, last night and got to thinking about my own life as a narrative. In the movie, Harold Crick (Ferrell) comes to realize that his life is the subject of a book, and that everything he does is part of the plot. He hears a woman's voice narrating his tiniest of actions. When he tries to do nothing at all - stop the plot - a demolition crew knocks through the wall of his apartment. In other words, when he tries to avoid the plot, the plot comes to him.
My life is a book, that much is certain. I even narrate at times. Especially when I look back at all the little things in my life and how they could have been different, it reads like a book.
The question is, is it a novel or a collection of short stories?
I'd like to think it is a collection of short stories because of endings. In a book, you have a clear beginning, an arc, and a clear ending. Life's not really like that. It's hard to point to a spot in the plot and say, there's the ending. The different chapters in my life I can easily do that. They are so book-like it's sad. Everything from the characters, to plot unfolding, to themes, to backstories - I mean, it's all right there.
The problem is when I think of my life in terms of one really long novel. I'm not dead, so there's no real clear ending. It still reads like a book, but the plot is disjointed. Worse, there's some question of whether the plot ran its course long ago.
In television, this is called "jumping the shark". You know, that famous point in Happy Days where Fonzy, dressed in a leather jacket while water skiing, attempts to jump a shark. It made no sense. The moment is universally condemned as one of the worst in TV history. Happy Days was all downhill from there. Everyone says that is the point where Happy Days had run its course and everything after was grasping at straws. Jumping the shark, in recent years, has become a metaphor for the one moment where the plot should have stopped but instead kept going.
As a collection of short stories, or even as a series of movies with recurring characters and never-ending sequels, all is well. It's a happy little life filled with daring adventures.
But as one long novel, I shudder to think: "Has my life jumped the shark?"
My life is a book, that much is certain. I even narrate at times. Especially when I look back at all the little things in my life and how they could have been different, it reads like a book.
The question is, is it a novel or a collection of short stories?
I'd like to think it is a collection of short stories because of endings. In a book, you have a clear beginning, an arc, and a clear ending. Life's not really like that. It's hard to point to a spot in the plot and say, there's the ending. The different chapters in my life I can easily do that. They are so book-like it's sad. Everything from the characters, to plot unfolding, to themes, to backstories - I mean, it's all right there.
The problem is when I think of my life in terms of one really long novel. I'm not dead, so there's no real clear ending. It still reads like a book, but the plot is disjointed. Worse, there's some question of whether the plot ran its course long ago.
In television, this is called "jumping the shark". You know, that famous point in Happy Days where Fonzy, dressed in a leather jacket while water skiing, attempts to jump a shark. It made no sense. The moment is universally condemned as one of the worst in TV history. Happy Days was all downhill from there. Everyone says that is the point where Happy Days had run its course and everything after was grasping at straws. Jumping the shark, in recent years, has become a metaphor for the one moment where the plot should have stopped but instead kept going.
As a collection of short stories, or even as a series of movies with recurring characters and never-ending sequels, all is well. It's a happy little life filled with daring adventures.
But as one long novel, I shudder to think: "Has my life jumped the shark?"
Labels: movies
posted by Jeremy at
12:42 PM
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