A:
I'm telling you man, she broke my heart, she really did. It's just like that movie, and
B:
No! It's not like a movie!
A:
But it really is
B:
Don't deny yourself your humanity by just repeating emotions and actions taken from pop culture! Don't!
A:
I'm not
B:
Movies and TV and books! All of them!
A:
Calm down, man.
B:
We're different! We're more different than they let us be!
A:
But all those things, they acknowledge the shared experience of heartache, or loss, or love or whatever. They remind us that other people feel those emotions and have those experiences, too. It's comforting and helpful and nice, and
B:
But they reduce! They're reductions! You feel 100% loss, and I feel 100% loss, and some of that is shared, but it's only 98%! And movies or books, to sell, to make MONEY, they only give you that 98% that everyone knows! But that 2% is what makes you different from me! It's important! It's critical! And when you think in terms of movies, or stories you know or situations you've seen thgat have been explicitly ACTED or WRITTEN for you, you're throwing that 2% out! You're denying your own humanity and relegating yourself to the mean!
A:
You're exaggerating
B:
People and gorillas share 98% of our DNA! Should we just cut out that 2% bit that's different? Is that what you WANT? Is that what you're willing to GIVE UP in order to not have to feel for yourself?? Are you so desperate to be given a roadmap to your own experiences that you'd throw away the 2% that makes you you?!
A:
The DNA thing
B:
You know what that 98% of DNA is? Do you know what we share with gorillas?
A:
I don't know, probably lungs and a heart and
B:
No! I'll tell you what that 98% is!
A:
You don't know
B:
I do know! I do know! They did a study, an EXPERIMENT! Up in Canada somewhere, they took our DNA or the gorillas DNA, it doesn't matter, and they cut out the 2%! They cut right out what separates us from the apes! And they threw it in the trash! And they took the rest of it, and popped it in an egg, and it hatched! And do you know what it was?
A:
This didn't happen
B:
AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT WAS? It was a monster! It was a BEAST! It was a hairy creature with four thumbs, four legs, and no face, that sweated constantly and shuddered whenever it smelled a banana! And that's what movies are! That's what plots are! That's what you get when you write a story that has five acts, and a beginning and an end! It leads inexorably to that animal!
A:
Dude
B:
The next time your life reminds you of a story, I want you to think about that animal! And think about yourself, and how different you are from that monster, and how much difference that 2% makes, I want you to think about it.