Continuation and end of our small collection of chronicles devoted to what a story is and what a good story means. And who says end, says outcome! So how do you wrap up a good story?
Nonchalantly
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« Only institutions have a future.
Men only have hope. »
(Yvan Illich)
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Well, a story, you have to know how to finish it. Happy end ? Tragic end ? Open end ? One thing is certain: the outcome that does not nourish is useless. It can end badly. It can end in marriage and a lot of children. Or in devolution mode – it’s up to you to guess the end. It doesn’t matter: the only good conclusion is an end that brings infinity in the soul. Stars, Hope, Wonders, Resistance, Action – how a story ends is to the transmutation of spirits that we measure it.
What the denouement unravels is the soul of those who listen, therefore. Herta Herzog had already understood in the 1940s to what serve the stories (even the rosewater soap operas of the radios at the time, intended for ” desperate Housewives »!): The escape (wishful thinking), relaxation (emotional release), guidance in life (advice seeking). A bad story leaves you on your own hunger : it does not nourish your heart, does not give any substance to your life. Everyone was once amazed at the way in which Bruno Bettelheim (Fairy tale psychoanalysis, 1976) or Ferdinand Ulrich (The meanings of the story, 2002) have found so much meaning, healing power and direction of our lives in stories or tales. This is because the great stories as they come to an end are not distractions – but forces of concentration and D’lighting and of nutrition : their final is also a breakaway, a breakthrough out of time. I’ll keep it short: the story is learning about time, but hey, that’s snobbish, and I refer to Paul Ricoeur (Time and story) for those who have not already dropped out. The general idea is that you can shout out to live and collect as you can your past, live your present, anticipate your future – only the story has the keys to your time. Heals the past, supports the present and opens up a future.
“The end of history” is not in any case a stopping point, Fukuyama way when, in 1989, the Wall collapsed. A successful story ends with a ” Maranatha “! a call for the incredible to happen, for doors to open, for a continuation to exist, which gives meaning to human action or human hope. Everything can collapse around: if a story unfolds, which opens a door at the end, then a “better” or an “otherwise” exists and it becomes possible to bend your strength to counter adversity, was it there? moral or established order. It is thus that with Homer, after the defeat of Troy, L’Illiade tells how a splendor emerges from the smoldering ruins, a glory that shines above blood and tears. An elsewhere and an otherwise rise above, which gives meaning to the eternity which remains, in fact, today, the history hoped for by men.
Final cause of all things is a cause of Peace, already affirmed in XIIIe century Thomas Aquinas (5ST II-II 29c): peace is the final cause of everything. Everything is said, everything is consumed: a story only has meaning if it gives peace by nourishing hope. I say that, I say nothing, but here – the air of looking elsewhere – I have just cut the quid to Plato who, in a famous definition, said of a story that it is successful if it provides ” either sorrow or joy » (Republic 603c). Taratata! Much more, much better, well beyond feelings, a successful story provides a virtue: that of hoping, again and again, to open a future and to open it in peace. The story ends when the soul rises. It is not the art of imitation and purification only, but that of elevation.
It is therefore not true, as Colona claims, that in the stories a ” blind logic of possibilities » (The art of TV series, 2, “Denouement”, p. 319). Blind! It is quite the reverse: a story makes us “seers”, in the strong sense that Rimbaud gave to this term. And it is to Rimbaud, moreover, that belongs the final word of this small collection of our chronicles devoted to what a story is and what a good story means:
« I say you have to be seer, be seer.
The poet is seen by a long, immense and reasoned disorder of all the senses. All forms of love, suffering, madness; he seeks himself, he exhausts in himself all the poisons, to keep only their quintessences. Ineffable torture where he needs all the faith, all the superhuman strength, where he becomes among all the great sick, the great criminal, the great cursed – and the supreme Scholar! – Because he arrives at the unknown! – Since he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than any! He arrives at the unknown; and when, in a panic, he would at last lose the intelligence of his visions, he saw them!«
Emmanuel TOURPE
Read the previous chronicles of Emmanuel Tourpe:
– Anatomy of a story: the right story with a scalpel
– The pretty curves of Vonegut and the well-placed actions of Aristotle: the real keys to the story
– How the brain tells: the story as an inner journey
– Leave quickly and come back late
“But what does the Marchioness do at five o’clock?”
Emmanuel Tourpe, 50 years old and father of 4 children, is the director of TV / digital programming for the cultural channel Arte. He held the same functions, as well as those of Head of Studies, at RTBF for almost 20 years. Doctorate in philosophy, he is the author of a large number of books and scientific articles. He is also an international speaker. He also performs communication, management and strategy consulting functions. He writes a bimonthly column in Profession Audio | Visual since October 2020.
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