Rose Baker - "Alone" and personal narrative

     We need community and socialization for many reasons, but part of what we derive from society is the processing and development of narrative. The narratives of our own lives, and our narratives of the world, are topics that, knowingly or not, we spend a great deal of time working out and developing a system of together, in community. When friends share stories about their week and defend their actions and perspective, they affirm each other's personal narratives. Similarly, religion and philosophy are modern society's efforts at developing consistent narratives about larger aspects of the world.

    I think that the urge to find narrative, and through narrative, purpose and direction, is so strong that a lack of created narratives triggers feelings of unsafety perhaps more than simple isolation. I've watched several seasons of the show Alone, a reality tv survival show where contestants attempt to outlast each-other while completely isolated in the wilderness. One season that I was especially immersed in featured a guy who spent most of his non-task time mythologizing his experiences to the camera and carving those stories in a walking staff through hieroglyph-esque symbols. He missed his family, but in the absolute social silence and absence of intent, narrative, and collective purpose without a community, he talked about his staff like it kept him alive. Like the stories of the days he'd fought through, and the need to have record of it, was the only thing that justified the struggle. He couldn't make it if "making it" disappeared once the moment ended. We talk a lot about the "need to be known," but not as much as the perhaps far deeper need for narrative.