About 2 months ago, before I graduated from college, I showed a friend of mine the first 13 episodes of the TV show Glee. We watched 4 episodes per sitting over the span of 3 nights. This made me incredibly happy because only a few weeks earlier, my friend refused to give Glee much of a chance. He held it in contempt for airing at 9 P.M on Tuesday nights -- the same time slot as his beloved Lost.
Imagine my excitement when he said that he really liked Glee and that he wanted to keep watching more episodes. He even formed theories about what he thought would happen next and talked about how much he adored certain characters and hated others. Naturally, I was thrilled.
When all the episodes were over and we had discussed the show in detail for the better part of an hour, I went back to my apartment. I told my roommate about the Glee sessions and about how excited I was that my friend liked the show. After I rambled on for a few minutes, she just looked at me and said, "Why do you care so much? You didn't create the show..."
My roommate spoke the truth. Nonetheless, I was a little shocked at how much her statement really stung me. I went to bed thinking about it. Why do I care sooo much about whether or not someone likes Glee? She's right. It's not my show. I didn't create it.
As I sat there, thinking, two memories came into my mind.
When I attended his seminar a year ago, screenwriting teacher Robert McKee presented the following idea: We as people identify so much with the characters of the stories we take in that it's as if we are those characters. We love movies, plays, TV, novels, etc. because we see ourselves in them. Therefore, if you insult someone's favorite movie, it's like you're in insulting him/her. That's why we get so enraged when people don't agree with our taste in film or theater or literature. In a weird way, it feels like being rejected.
Then, last year I was talking with a nitrate film specialist at the Library of Congress -- a real movie buff who told me that the greatest thing in the world to him is seeing a movie that makes him cry and sharing it with someone else. Immediately after he said this, I felt myself nodding my head.
All of this was flittering around my brain as I thought about my concern for Glee.
Okay. So, I didn't create Glee. I don't write for Glee. Shoot I've never even met the writers. I don't know them from a whole in the ground -- how they live or where they're coming from... but for some strange reason, I can relate to their show and it gives me a euphoric feeling when I watch it.
And when you love and identify with something - just face it - it's a part of you. And in my opinion, there's nothing more beautiful than sharing a little part of yourself with someone else.
Who really owns a story anyway? Is it the person who formally recorded that story? Or is it the people who listen to the story, who embrace it, then pass it on to others for hundreds of years? I think certainly Homer and maybe even Shakespeare would agree with me when I say that those who hear a story and then share it with someone else are crucial to the tale-telling process.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS... I love Glee. It's not the first TV show or story that I've loved and it definitely won't be the last, but what remains a constant is this - I love to share stories with people. Whether I wrote the them or not, nothing provides me more joy.
Ciao for now, my friends.
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