Raey Kubiak

Let us focus on the protagonist. His first concern is to survive and find shelter. Fate has brought him to a dire position, and now only action can save him. He cannot sit still and wait. He must find food, water, tools, some means to escape perhaps, or to travel. Tom Hanks has already told this story in Cast Away.

In a realistic work, however, in a social drama of today, what happens if a man ends up on an island that hides an unknown civilization? It simply would not be realistic. As a writer, I must accept the premise that in the year 2025 there still exists a part of the planet that has not been explored, and that it is possible for someone to be without any means of communication, physical or digital. Such a condition is practically impossible. When I attempt to write such a story, I am using devices that cover my inability to weave a convincing modern narrative. The island, the prison, the place cut off by weather, are ideal disguises for that weakness, since they predispose the reader to accept isolation as the main force that will drive the plot. Thus, the reader will not wonder about the obvious questions that arise in our contemporary world. Does he not have a phone? How could he end up without a map in the age of GPS?

The same applies when the world of the story emerges from a total collapse of the internet and communications. It is the only way to leave the questions of connectivity unanswered, questions that in our time would be resolved immediately. But today we have deeply internalized the belief that the system is not one, and that it is impossible for all systems to collapse simultaneously. Such a narrative would seem entirely implausible to the average reader. Therefore, the world of a realistic short story must be fully connected, fully communicative, and transparent. Information must be immediately accessible to all characters and to anyone who seeks it, without pretenses or artificial obstacles. Only occasionally can a dead battery or an out-of-network location be accepted, but not as a main axis of the plot. A story that uses disconnection as a device to explain a character’s ignorance or confusion acts as a smokescreen and ultimately underestimates the reader’s intelligence.

In the modern short story, since everything is available and characters have unlimited access to information, the essence of action shifts to the psychological realm. The most meaningful interactions are those based on the emotional impact that one person has on another. In a society that has seen Bourne, Mission Impossible, Matrix, and James Bond, the new work cannot rely on a technological blackout to create tension. Instead, stories like American Beauty remain alive because they invest in the inner world of people. We remember that scene where Spacey finds work at a fast food place, which does not revolve around internet access but around a man’s desire to rediscover himself and to feel once more the excitement of youth.

Considering that the film is already thirty years old, we can see how difficult it is today for a writer to present a convincing realistic story. We live in an age where social networks have invaded every aspect of our lives, social and personal alike, and in some way control our behavior and our compatibility with the digital communities we inhabit. Our real self seems anesthetized, if not altogether deactivated. We watch, or rather fail to watch, the years passing before us, unable to realize that we have aged together with our beloved actors and singers who appear altered on our screens.

What story can be written about the human being in a world where time no longer has practical meaning? How can one speak to an audience whose capacity for concentration has been mutilated by a constant flow of stimuli? We see it everywhere, at work, during breaks, in the immediate escape into a foolish few-second video that promises a moment of oblivion. From the youngest employee to the highest executive, everyone seeks that small refuge of distraction. No one can endure twenty minutes of continuous, undivided focus anymore. How, then, can one write a story that will truly hold the reader’s interest and, most importantly, their attention, even for just a few minutes until it ends?

(The terms story, movie, narrative, hero, character, writer, and screenwriter etc are used interchangeably here.)