Why, every time I bring this up, I inflame those around me. Perhaps I am confused, perhaps they are… Who knows. Which matters, the mantle or the core?
I mean the mantle or the core of a story. So let’s define first. I’ll use “The Tortoise and the Hare” as an illustrative example in the definitions.
- Mantle: The surface level of the story. “A turtle races a rabbit, and the rabbit loses because of his hubris.”
- Core: The actual meaning of the story. “Take your time, be intentional.”
Yes, this is allegory. What the story of the allegory is vs. what the story is an allegory for. The problem with “allegory” as a term is that we don’t normally consider all stories allegory, but I believe they are.
But I digress. What I want to bring attention to is the strange obsession of consumers to focus on the mantle when evaluating the quality of a story. If we ever speak of the core, it is in thinly veiled allegory, such as Pilgrim’s Progress or, from my understanding, The Barbie Movie*.
But, like I said, I believe all story is allegory. Just oft more veiled. Perhaps this heavier veiling is even a sign of skill, but I am not sure. Regardless, whether all story is allegory is perhaps arguable, but it is not possible to argue that all story may be viewed through the lens of allegory.
Now dare with me to assume that we not only may but should and must view all story through this allegory lens. My religion, Christianity, seems to have a cultural virus that inappropriately fixates on the mantle. “This show is too sexual”, “why would you want to watch a show about a serial killer”, etc. etc.
But those who say these sorts of things tend to neglect the real killer of cultural morality: the story’s core.
There are plenty of examples of lovely mantles with devastating cores. There are plenty of examples of gruesome mantles with lovely cores.
I hypothesize that, indeed, the mantle affects the flavor in which we communicate. If a character in a story uses a curseword, it is likely consumers are more likely to view the word as standard and to integrate it into their vocabulary.
The core, however, is what develops a person’s philosophy. The story rings true or false… Or something else we’ll discuss after I say this…
…From a marketing view, the mantle is the hook, while the core is what keeps them on the line.
Ok, now let’s talk about the true and false element. The consumer will consider the story “bad” for one of three reasons related to the core:
- The core does not ring true. It seems implausible. An ideology in which the consumer’s life experience has already proven false directly or indirectly or, if it has not been proven false, the consumer wishes it to be false. When a story feels “preachy”, this is often what they mean.
- The core is true, but a truth is too painful, for one reason or another, for the consumer to accept. This may be labeled in many different ways, but “offensive” will be the underlying meaning of the label.
- The core is trite. The consumer may agree with the story’s core, but has heard it too many times. The story feels like it is talking down to them, or is a waste of time.
And here is why the consumer would find the story as “good”:
- The core reveals a truth of which the user was not yet aware but is prepared to integrate. Each consumer will vary in the amount of unawareness that they can palate. This is truly transformative art.
- The core reveals an untested ideology that the viewer wants to believe. This is the most disturbing of all media. For a storyteller to leech off of this truism to willingly lead the uninformed off of a ledge is both prevalent and utterly disturbing. It is particularly disturbing when targeting those with little to no life experience: children and those who have, for one reason or another, been sheltered from the tempering of life.
*I’ve yet to view The Barbie Movie for no reason other than I’ve only watched perhaps 5 movies since it released and it just happens to not have been one. It sounds, however, like a fairly clear example of a modern Pilgrim’s Progress style allegory for the “religion” of 2020s feminism.