To Be Concluded: Can There Be A Neverending Story?

As the decade draws to a close it seems as if it is a fitting time for the end of an era.  At least, many popular series seem to think so.  In January, we began the year with the conclusion to a story that many fans thought would never actually even become a series (as was originally intended), namely the conclusion of M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" series, Glass.  Even if not originally meant to be the conclusion, the long-running big screen story of the X-Men (or at least, the Fox iteration of it), which many people credit with spawning the current success of superhero blockbusters, finally reached its end (again) with this summer's Dark Phoenix.  A number of popular television series were finally concluded, such as Big Bang Theory and Game of Thrones.  And then, of course, there are the two massively successful Disney owned properties: the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars (both of which are featured extensively on Learning To Listen...).

If you watch Doctor Who, you get this reference.  If not, you probably don't.
The point is that the spoilers below are mainly for an older episode of Doctor Who.
The references to the Star Wars "Skywalker Saga" and Marvel's "Infinity Saga" won't be too spoilery.

Both of these represent a potentially endless saga, in which the writers will continue to expand outward, paving new paths and finding new stories to tell, all woven into the fabric of the same much larger story of that "universe."  Of course, there are clearly financial motivations behind the fact that they will not stop telling those stories any time soon.  Nonetheless, the central story of each of the franchises, which has always provided said franchise with unity, direction and purpose, is reaching its end. 

This makes sense, to some degree anyway, with Marvel, since the movies are based on stories and characters that originated in comics. As a medium, comic books are designed to be a continuous series of ongoing tales of the adventures of the heroes, which need not have a definitive ending. Of course, as the quality of the telling of those stories has evolved and improved through the years, the role of larger, often interconnecting, story arcs that can even weave separate stories together has increased, preventing the adventures of the heroes from becoming merely episodic and eventually stale.  From this perspective, it makes sense that the Marvel movies would finally conclude what they are now retrospectively calling "The Infinity Saga." In the same vein, it makes sense that this central saga would culminate with a movie that has a title like "Endgame," that it would finally retire a number of key characters, and also that it would feel like a conclusion in many ways, even to the point of foregoing the customary inclusion of a post-credit or mid-credits scene.  At the same time, however, it also makes sense that the same 'conclusion' would establish or continue to develop newer characters, who will carry the story forward and even hint at or set the stage for future story-lines.

Puns upon puns upon puns.
This meme originally posted on a post I rather enjoyed (here).

This way of doing things makes a lot of sense for a comic book story universe.  It allows for continuity, while also keeping things fresh and reducing the amount of over-saturation and fatigue audiences might feel toward particular characters or even elements of plot, while also having the additional practical advantage of giving actors whose contract has run out, who may be getting older or simply may feel ready to move on, the opportunity to do so. Overall, it all adds up to a remarkably impressive transfer of the actual mode of storytelling that comics books have utilized for decades into the more lucrative medium of major motion pictures.

Perhaps the more interesting example is how this same model is now being applied to Star Wars. The retrospective renaming of its central story as the "Skywalker Saga" is an interesting move, obviously designed to justify the forthcoming spin offs, which will enable then to continue to capitalize off of the story, despite the fact that the central saga was long understood to consist (eventually) of exactly nine episodes, organized into three trilogies.  Until recently, it made no sense to specify a "Skywalker Saga," because that was simply Star Wars. It always was the story.

This meme originally posted on my initial response to The Last Jedi (here).

At the same time, however, the notion that this story can become a starting point from which to branch out and explore other interesting stories has been explored for decades already, through various books, TV shows and even comic books.  From this perspective, the idea of giving the central story its own name, in order to move forward with more spin-offs can also be described as a creative way of transferring what has worked in various other mediums onto the big screen, not unlike what Marvel has accomplished.

Again, we still acknowledge the clear financial motivations behind these trends. Nonetheless, these new trends do prompt some interesting questions. Do stories actually end? Should they have a definitive conclusion, or embrace the ongoing opening of new chapters?  Can there really be a never-ending story?  Many experienced authors and other storytellers would readily assert that "yes, they do indeed have a clear ending" and that one mark of a good storyteller is that he or she has a clear sense of the ending toward which they are working. In general, I am not inclined to disagree with this notion. However, I think it could prove worthwhile to explore the question a bit further.

I have nothing further to say about Stranger Things (see here if you want).
But, this scene deserves credit for helping me decide to frame the question in this way.

One of the stories that I have really grown to enjoy, but I have never commented on here mostly because my own viewing is still years behind the current releases, is Doctor Who.  {I know, I'm really showing my nerd cards here: I usually talk about Star Wars and superheroes, but surprise, I also watch Doctor Who!  Don't worry, I won't start talking about Harry Potter next, but I would most definitely recommend that anyone reading this who hasn't read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or The Chronicles of Narnia stop what you're doing and promptly begin doing so!}  In the regeneration of the Doctor, the show has found a helpful plot device to keep the story going over the years and keep things new and fresh, even with different actors playing the lead role in different seasons.  This has enabled the show to continue, with various stops and starts, across several decades.  So, the show is already an interesting reference point for this topic of whether or not there can truly be a never-ending story.  Recently, however, I viewed an episode that offered some further interesting reflections on the topic, namely the 2014 Christmas Special, "Last Christmas." (This is the episode that will be thoroughly spoiled, if you keep reading).

This Christmas Special involved a rather entertaining Santa Claus appearing, along with his elves and reindeer, as a fantasy, a captivating tale from the characters' childhood, which was in fact "a dream that was trying to save them."  This intervention came in the midst of a nightmare dream sequence they were caught in, thanks to the face-hugging alien "Dream Crabs."  The presence of Santa and the ongoing debate over whether he is real, despite that he was standing in front of them and talking to them, became a vehicle to reflect on the relationship between fantasy and reality, which also entailed a not-so-subtle reflection on faith.  The notion of 'a dream that is trying to save us' seemed to be particularly evocative of the increasingly common notion that faith can be good for people, regardless of whether or not it is true.  You may often hear this expressed, especially by those agnostics and atheists alike who are not hostile to faith, in the form of the belief that it is simply good to have something to believe in.  Now, this notion is interesting on several levels, besides the most basic level that it is sometimes supported by scientific evidence, such as the fact that faith has observable benefits to one's health.  While the notion that the object of our faith need not be real might be problematic on various levels, still the notion that faith itself provides evidence of its own capacity to "save us" is thought-provoking.  This fact alone leaves open the question of whether it might be real after all, as the closing scene of the episode hints at, implying that perhaps Santa was working in the real world after all.     

This was my first meme of The Doctor.  It was bound to happen eventually.

But, the more basic commentary on story came in the context of their attempt to figure out how they had all arrived at the North Pole.  Whenever the question came up, each character would compulsively say something like "It's kind of a long story."  At the end of the episode, after they find their way out of the dream sequence, we are given a quick glimpse of the "long story" which is that person's life.  It is as if to say this story has ended, but each of these characters come from a much larger, bigger story that will continue to go on.  And the concept of trying to escape the dream sequence gives us a hint at what that larger story might be called: Real Life.  That story goes on.

The concept of a story "universe" continues to explore this larger story, from which these characters come, which still goes on even after the present story reaches its end.  For us, as readers and viewers, it should also prompt us to consider that much larger story of which we are a part: Real Life.  The stories that capture our imagination can be like a dream sequence, from which we must learn to find our way back to reality.  One of the very principles on which this blog is built might be expressed by the notion from "Last Christmas" that they can be "a dream that is trying to save us," in the sense that they can have meaning.  This was Principle #2 of the Seven Principles, within which I try to operate.  But, the first and last of these principles focus even more directly on that larger story called "Real Life."  We must stay grounded and we must know when to let go.  The latter (knowing when to let go) does not have to apply only to knowing when a particular story is bad for you.  Even with good stories, it can mean simply knowing when it is time to return to reality.

This meme originally posted with an archived post about manhood, wounds and healing
inspired by the X-Men character Wolverine (here).

Over time, I realized how much these first and last principles were probably always subconsciously influenced by the Principle and Foundation of Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, which has been very personally formative for me.  Ignatius proposed that we build on the foundation of remembering what we were made for: to praise, reverence and glorify God and by this means to obtain salvation (which is nothing less than living in eternal communion with God and with one another in Christ Jesus).  All created things are given to help us achieve this end, to stay focused on this goal.  We must make ready use of them only to the extant that they help us achieve that goal, but with a kind of detachment that he termed indifference (not a kind of callousness, but simply a focus on what is most important, resulting in a lack of attachment to other things).  This holy indifference motivates us to choose only what helps us stay focused on our purpose and rejects whatever becomes an obstacle to that purpose and goal.

Since I began this blog in 2016, it has been something that has helped me to seek meaning and thus to stay focused on my purpose and on living in reality, even while a number of new stories that captured my imagination were being released.  I hope it has done something similar for others out there.  Nonetheless, as this decade comes to a close and as the two main sagas on which I have spent the most time commenting reach their end (even if it is only a quasi-end), it is time for me to return my focus more directly to that larger story of which we are all a part: Real Life.  You may notice that 2019 has been a very active year for posting, as if I were making the most of this year.  That is because I made this decision at the beginning of the year and I did indeed want to make the most of it, or in some cases perhaps, to get some final thoughts out there.  This is not quite a final "signing off," as I will still post an Episode VII of "Discerning the Spirits of the Force," coinciding with the release of Star Wars, Episode IX: Rise of the Skywalker.  And I will post a "Top 5 Songs Worth Learning to Listen to in 2019."  Also, I can't guarantee that I won't ever decide to make a very rare, occasional post.  Who knows.  Maybe "Learning to Listen To..." is a never-ending story... but, let's just call this the end.

If anyone is reading this, truly I thank you and I hope this helped you, not only to better appreciate some of the stories that capture your imagination, but to better live within that larger story of which we are all a part: Real Life.

God bless you.