I’ve been listening to The Martian on audiobook and I love it so much. It’s really a great exemplar of the “Man vs Nature” conflict structure that I learned about in elementary school.
- Man vs Nature
- Man vs Man
- Man vs Society
- Man vs Himself
Which, I think, is what the writer meant when he said he likes stories “without politics.” Because yes, I will forever clown on him for thinking that Star Trek, of all things, is “without politics” – the entire show is political storytelling overlaid onto Freudian and Jungian archetypes – but everyone is allowed to discover things they missed. Yes, even late in life. We’re allowed to not all have it figured out by Age Whatever.
But I think the appealing thing about Man vs Nature stories is that there’s no evil intent to contend with. All the other structures involve human motivations; but Nature has no motivation. It just is. We can either adapt around it, or perish. And that adaptation is what’s so satisfying to watch or read about.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. MacGyver. Odyssey of the Mind. Destination Imagination. Heck, even puns. The heights of human achievement come from using things in unexpected ways.
I do love the other story archetypes, don’t get me wrong. But right now? There’s something comforting in good old Nature trying to kill us.
Emilybook 