Reply to comment

Forward: I re-read this and realized it is just my random thoughts I had after class on thursday. Forgive me if it is kind of incoherent. I'll organize it better next time.

This class has definitely not been the first time I have thought about the vastness of space and time (I was raised on Star Trek...) so I'm no stranger to the mind-effing factor that picture, etc, induces. I think it is important (for me) to point out that that picture of the multitudes of galaxies was also a story with life-and-story-changing-abilites. Because when I first saw a picture like that, in my freshman year of high school, it definitely changed me. First, it made me completely depressed at my insignificance, and I stopped believing in God, and life generally sucked because I had to find a way to live forever. Then I stopped being so dramatic and instead of being an atheist I'm now a Hopeful, and I decided that I'm not totally insignificant as long as I make an impact. So that all happened already, and seeing the picture and thinking again about how big the universe is just makes me smile upon the past.

During the time when the idea of infinite universe made me depressed, I rarely told stories at all because I thought nothing mattered in the big sense of things, and whenever anyone tried to make a big point in a friendly discussion I would either (depending on my mood) secretly think "This is silly, why are they even thinking about this, it doesn't matter" or I'd go on a big rant about how no one mattered unless we figured out a way to live forever. I did not make many friends this way.

In conclusion, the only way we can tell and conceive stories is by not thinking about the enormous universe at all. Or else someone will eventually say "Why does it matter?" and everyone gets all silent and it is very awkward, because no one ever wants to discuss why life actually matters with the people who don't think life matters. Believe me, no one wanted to talk to me when I was like that. 

If the story MUST include the universe/something infinite/existentialism, then by all means, tell it, but those couple depressed people who find no meaning in life but to find immortality will blankly glare at you until they find a way to interject their thoughts about why your point is invalid. I'm just telling my experiences (oh my god another story).