I finally know exactly why I find musicals to be un-immersive and emotionally unimpressive. And no, it's not the singing, it's not the dancing, it's not even (in a way) the narrative or the plot.
It has to do with the presentation of emotion, and it's a trap that pretty much every art form is vulnerable to: the simplification of emotions. The best example I can think of to explain what I mean is a generic modern pop song about love. Generally, rather than painting the more truthful picture of complicated, mixed feelings and difficult social structures, they paint a somewhat simple picture: the person singing is perfectly in love with the person they're singing about. If they already have the object of their desire, then their life couldn't get any better. If they don't have the person they want, then they will never be complete until they do.
I have found that musicals tend to play this trick with their characters, simplifying the emotions portrayed down to a single, base emotion that is incredibly pure. Now, this isn't necessarily bad. It makes the character much more accessible and relate-able to a larger percentage of people. But it rubs me the wrong way.
I don't think I've ever had a moment where I've felt a single, pure emotion. It has always been for me a mix of emotions: Anger with some jealousy, anger with sadness, happiness that leans towards ecstasy or happiness that leans toward contentedness. The idea of experiencing a single, pure emotion is completely foreign to me, and so I find art/entertainment that portrays that to be entirely unfulfilling and unrealistic. I don't believe the person putting forth that emotion because I don't believe it's possible to experience emotion in that way; the human psyche and social relationships are simply too complicated.
And this issue is in no way limited to musicals. It pops up everywhere: music (as I mentioned above), bad video game narratives, bad novels, even bad plays. I just find it to be more prevalent in musicals.
No comments:
Post a Comment