There seem to be only so many narratives that are endemic to a culture, and most of the stories in that culture tend to refer to them in some way. (I’m not going to back this claim up with references, it being overkill for the example at hand, but we should be aware of them when we see them, especially when we deliberately use the concept as an implicit acknowledgement of the claim.)

What am I talking about? Well, if I say, “Redemption story”, you all know what I mean, even if the details are absent. The details could be wildly varied, but still… it’s a frame that sets up certain expectations which can be echoed or violated as the narrator chooses.

I was reminded of this by a recent video. I’m a sucker for human/animal nature clips, even as I resent the ones that add a pointlessly long narrative to tell an underlying cooked up story, taking half an hour of bad AI voice-over captioning to force you to spend the maximum amount of time. Recognizing that I’m a sucker for watching, my irritation seeks entertainment from whatever else I can use outside the intent of the video creator, a sort of passive-aggressive guilt move.

Today, that paid off in an apercu. In this clip (too long to watch, but in case you want to…) the story presents a whale in distress from an infestation of barnacles, and her calf, who nominally seeks assistance from a human diver. The diver does what he can, brings in others, instigates a complete rescue that involves temporary captivity and surgery, and achieves success, topped by meeting the family again months later and being recognized.

There are thousands of clips like this that involve big game in Africa, lost bear cubs in Alaska, dogs seeking help for abandoned kittens in the rain, and so forth, ad nauseum. 90% of them (at least) must be pure and unadulterated B-S. (I assume the purpose of the creators is to push advertising, or garner clicks, malware, something. Whatever it is, the narrative structures are clearly instrumental and formulaic. They want you to care in this universal way so that you will… I don’t know what, perhaps because of my ad blockers. I can see the purposefulness, if not the goals.)

Normally I speculate about the motivation of the “authors” of these low-quality productions — they’re very good at understanding how to pull at the heartstrings of the “aw… cute/sad!” response, even if they are obscure in their purpose. They feed the “I want to be a savior of these poor critters” Messiah wish that we probably all have (or human infants would be in big trouble). But this time I realized something more interesting.

Ignore how my response to the referenced clip is coaxed/reframed by its creator as a human granting salvation. Look at the story instead from the perspective of the protagonist. The real protagonist. Who’s that? The whale calf.

*The whale calf is in trouble. His family is in danger.
……..[He hears the call.]
*He goes in search of someone who can help.
……..[He responds to the call.]
*He looks for the only one who can help him, a diver.
……..[He calls upon the fairies.]
*His summons is successful.
……..[The fairy looks over the problem and decides what to do.]
*He watches over the visit to an outlandish <outwaterish?> place filled with many helpers with incomprehensible activities.
……..[He visits fairyland and his mother is cured.]
*His friend the diver visits while his mother recovers.
……..[The fairy keeps an eye on him.]
*He encounters his friend long afterward, and is welcomed.
……..[The fairy with his mysterious ways is his family’s friend forever.]

What delights me about using this perspective is that I loathe the intended “how compassionate I am as a human to grant relief to the lesser beings” frame, which seems to be the recipe for creating these clips. I’d much rather explore the other perspective — it’s their story, not mine.

So framing this clip as a “getting help from the fairies” story instead of a “humans like me graciously condescending to be saviors” is much more satisfying.

Do you tell yourself alternate stories about marketing come-ons, or is it just me?