It has been a little over a year since I got to experience the majority of The Stanley Parable, and it all still feels so brand-new to me.
Even when time passes on, the game really does stand out to not have a literal end to all the adventures between Stanley and The Narrator. Countless endings, plenty of interactions, wonderful immersivity, diverse zones and profound monologues, whether in whims or expressions.
But, one of the endings stood out like gold, and it has constantly been echoing in my mind for the rants that The Narrator had with himself.
The Skip Button Ending.
In it, of all the moments that the Narrator was talking, the ninth kept looping in my mind. I kept listening to him talking with himself, going so remarkably in-depth with how our society has become regarding entertainment and the human psyche itself. Indeed, it is simply due to his prolonged isolation from Stanley, yet upon closer inspection in what looks like loquacious behavior, his internal arguments couldn't have felt any more true.
It's the inconsistency! It's the lack of accountability! It's the unwillingness to examine with an uncompromising heart the words that they are speaking into the world. As though there were no consequences for a lack of cohesion in one's assessment of others!
We are no different regarding this. When our perceptions, critiques and opinions become bundled up and formed into a massive voice, it can feel overwhelming on the ones who just wish to create. Yet, even in that bundle, we rarely reconsider our opinions, often without knowing its weight of hypocrisy. Though nuance is deeply supported, we, at times, don't fully recognize that our steps are walking toward the poles. After all, what really seems to be the harm when our presence is detached from us demanding something or someone what we desire? A frankly boatload of nothing.
...because it was said, because it was spoken, now it simply has to happen!
Imagine ourselves in the shoes of creators - big or small, whatever. Regardless of our own voices, in the ever-changing nature of society, we have to fulfill the demands of the masses. Non-compliance would either lead to deafening silence or tireless urgency. Without a doubt, you can speak up, but then what happens if it's criticized to the point of extinction? You feel forced to stay quiet, and not lash out at how considerably insulting it is to curate your speech. No one is around, yet everyone feels around.
...we are a people living in such bleakness and discomfort with ourselves that our entertainment is now our lives! It has come to represent us! It absolutely must speak to who we are as people!
Because otherwise, without our entertainment, we have nothing!
Let those two quotes sink in our minds. Think about it. Nearly everywhere we go, every spot we visit, every person we have ever met, and every little thing that fleetingly appeared in our eyeballs have somehow akinned to the element of amusement that we desire so heavily. It has to garner the features of such unreasonable intensity, colorfulness and extremity because we are deeply afraid of silence and stillness. Without them, the "bleakness" of our hearts would "stare right at us," just like how The Narrator pointed out. If we attempt to ponder just how attached we are with modern media, then why would we speak that it's very encroaching? Yet, it is. At the same time, many of us aren't building ourselves and cultivating our hearts by our own mind and two hands, and instead choose that same rapid media as our identity out of convenience. It all feels like a tragic story:
In effect, we have demanded that our entertainment be the collapse of ourselves.
Of course, having such an overview of society like this would give us a strong sense of distraught and hopelessness. In fact, this view is far from niche, and very prominent, yet so ironic to the point of echoing pitiness:
What a pitiful reflection of humanity these entertainments are!
What a shameful mirror to the human spirit they project!
What a sad state of affairs.
It must be that they were so discontent with themselves that they couldn't help but leave a negative review on Steam.
Alongside his "calm":
I'm not mad*.*
I'm not mad about any of this.
I'm at peace with it.
I am the calm center of gravity around which these perversions hurl themselves.
I am a waypoint for reasonable and collected discourse.
They're the ones who are mad!
Indeed, at the end of the day, The Narrator is purely feeling in spite for the thumbs down for the game he sees as his masterpiece. By itself, we can still see the comedic elements, yet it can be weirdly stinging, in a way. We are born human, and exaggerating our words and emotions is not uncommon at all. Despite this, just like how he becomes enraged at so many negative reviews, we could also have a reaction similar to his, maybe or maybe not. Even when The Narrator was having a massively amplified crisis, so many of his speech has somewhat (or definitely) exposed the grimness of our society.
So, to sum it up, the ninth audio rant from The Narrator feels like such an unexpectedly profound observation on humanity regarding what we perceive as entertainment. It's relatively pessimistic as indicated, but, from my perspective, it barely discounts any truth being spoken.
What's your open view about this?
Thanks for reading all of this text and have a good day, lads.
