1/9/2010 c1 42Catherine Julia Jefferson
This is actually really interesting. I completely know what you mean. Art has an annoying tendency to distort everything. "Reality" television is nothing more than a perverse human sciences experiment.

But I suppose the question is, if art really resembled real life, would we need it? If television simply reminded us of our own lives, would we watch it? If books simply pounded the monotony of our own existence into our skulls, would we read them?

I don't think we would. I think we're drawn to the extraordinary, to the stories that appear to be more than the sum of their events. I would guess it's an escape. When we need to get away from everything we dislike about our own lives, we move to fiction. We look for answers altogether elsewhere, recognizing subconsciously that we won't find them, but hoping all the same that there's more to life than living.

We want to be fooled.

Anyhow, this reminded me of a short story (inspired by real life) that I wrote a few years ago. I kept expecting there was more than met the eye, and by acting like it, I made my life more interesting... I posted the story on FP.