Philosophical themes: Thought-Provoking vs Pretentious

[Zhengo]

I just finished watching Parasyte and now philosophy's been on my mind lately, haha. This is a question I've always struggled with as a writer.

I usually find it enjoyable when a story's themes challenges my thinking and perspectives, but there's also a lot of times where a story waxing philosophical will cause me to roll my eyes at how condescending or hypocritical it is. I also think at least with the condescending part, it can be subjective. Frankly I feel like, for me at least, it doesn't matter how heavy-handed a story is at stating its themes, as long as the themes are engaging and the story is well-written. So, I frankly can't really make a distinction of when a story is thought-provoking vs pretentious, it's usually just in my guy XD (though I will immediately say it's pretentious if I catch hypocrisy in the story).

So do you guys have any preferences for how a story handles philosophy in its themes? And while you're at it, you can also show good and bad examples

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I love writing philosophy! ^^ And I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on this topic~

Personally, I think the best way to go about writing characters with different philosophies is just to leave everything imperfect. Show that there's good and bad in every perspective: the character who believes in freedom sometimes neglects the people they care about, or the character who defends the rule of law above all else struggles to avoid becoming a hypocrite in moments of weakness. Or maybe the character who just wants to help everyone destroys themselves in the process. The more you make it clear that there's no cosmic reward for having the best moral stance, the better.

And then, when characters end up talking to each other about their philosophies, keep things informal and personal, rather than high-handed and general. Instead of making Character A say 'people should always help their friends', have them say 'I think I should help my friends', or even just 'I want to help my friends'.
Avoid writing dialogue that reads like a speech unless the character is literally making a speech. That's one very simple way to avoid 'preachiness', I've found.

[skicoak]

How do you feel about squirrel philosophy ?

One of our recent anthology shorts has it!!!

Oddly Vanilla :: Trio of Squirrels | Tapas

I think like most things in the creative arts... It's the approach not the subject matter that determines the palatability of a thing.

[monotone_ink]

I often find that pieces of media that feel pretentious are the ones that explore philosophy only through the character's dialogue--for example, heavily referencing concepts from certain philosophers, but not doing anything substantial with them story-wise.

The best though-provoking stories are those where the philosophy itself is embodied in the actions of the characters and the progression of the story.

Haibane Renmei--a story about loss--handles this theme not through characters talking about what they believe loss is, but rather from their reactions to losing things, as well as their resolutions regarding said losses.

Evangelion--a story about the messiness of human relationships. Arguably pretentious, especially with on the nose naming conventions of things (Lance of Longinus, Chamber of Guf, Hedgehog's dilemma--though this one is thematically relevant).

However, it still does a large part of its exploration through action, most specifically the dysfunctional relationships between the main characters, and their gradual spiral into self-loathing and madness.

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Overall, I think stories only come off as pretentious if the creators behind it wanted to artificially elevate the work into high literature or something. Stories that are driven by honest motives and genuine concerns about life and existence are more likely to be thought-provoking.

[OttoGruenwald]

It's all a matter of sincerity. When the philosophy is attached to the emotional content of the film, its sincere. When its just a lecture its not sincere. The characters look like props, and that's fine if you're doing some kind of Platonic dialog where the characters just exist to rattle off talking points but for a film or novel its unbearable.