This is carried over from a discussion in another thread. Initially this started because of the word "apolitical" but I disagree with the other points brought up as well.
I prefer apolitical stories
Those don't exist and have never existed.
I'm going to call BS on that for reasons stated. (2) You can have a story that isn't intensely politically-themed. You can also read any story as having a political theme or message if you want to reach far enough.
Animal Farm is politically-themed. Charlotte's Web is not.
This is mostly an argument about semantics and what you think the word "political" means. People who say that all stories are political don't define it as "only related to a direct, obvious political reality", but rather as "every story is saying something". Charlotte's Web isn't a valueless story because it says something about death, change, and innocence, and those aren't "apolitical" values.
Charlotte’s Web does not have direct 1:1 political allegory in same way as Animal Farm, but it does have mild sociopolitical themes. Significant parts of the story depend on the characters learning: 1. the value of different “people” groups uniting, 2. the necessity of bargains and bribes in a world where few folks are altruistic, and 3. satirizing the effect of repeated propaganda on humans.
All these are simply to serve an entertaining children’s story, but they demonstrate insights in how we view the world to function.
... Everything is political, even if it's something as minute as displaying soft traits of the author's biases. Nothing is apolitical. Hell, just sending out the message "this is an apolitical work" is in and of itself political in nature.
... values are a politicized thing.
Just to pick a somewhat trite example, Mario is a game series that's pretty whimsical and never had any pretensions of being a political commentary about anything. Peach getting kidnapped is really just an Excuse Plot that I doubt the developers ever thought much about. But the fact that this plotline is so common, and that so many other games do it as well, ultimately does end up making a statement on how people view women overall regardless of anyone's intentions, which is very much a directly political value.
Completely apolitical stories do exist, but they're [generally not of good quality]
I say not everything is, or has to be political, and that there are good apolitical stories. What evidence says otherwise?
This started because I used "apolitical," but I thought about it a moment longer and disagreed with the points presented. I don't believe every story is political. In the case of the Mario games, the idea of a princess being rescued is so common, such a placebo of modern storytelling that anything it could say about a creator is worthless.
But I'm open to disagreement here. I brought up Charlotte's Web and Animal Farm as stories that are both apolitical and heavily political, which was also refuted.
So to shout this thread's title proudly: Is everything political?
This is carried over from a discussion in another thread
. Initially this started because of the word "apolitical" but I disagree with the other points brought up as well.
Animal Farm is politically-themed. Charlotte's Web is not.
All these are simply to serve an entertaining children’s story, but they demonstrate insights in how we view the world to function.
Just to pick a somewhat trite example, Mario is a game series that's pretty whimsical and never had any pretensions of being a political commentary about anything. Peach getting kidnapped is really just an Excuse Plot that I doubt the developers ever thought much about. But the fact that this plotline is so common, and that so many other games do it as well, ultimately does end up making a statement on how people view women overall regardless of anyone's intentions, which is very much a directly political value.
I say not everything is, or has to be political, and that there are good apolitical stories. What evidence says otherwise?
This started because I used "apolitical," but I thought about it a moment longer and disagreed with the points presented. I don't believe every story is political. In the case of the Mario games, the idea of a princess being rescued is so common, such a placebo of modern storytelling that anything it could say about a creator is worthless.
But I'm open to disagreement here. I brought up Charlotte's Web and Animal Farm as stories that are both apolitical and heavily political, which was also refuted.
So to shout this thread's title proudly: Is everything political?
edited 24th May '18 12:32:56 PM by Soble
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