Story Philosophy
The basis of how Sleepy Planet approaches story, narrative, and immersive experience.
Story Philosophy
Then came the existentialists—Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir—who picked up where Nietzsche left off. They said, “We’re free now. We get to create ourselves.” But wow—what an obligation that is. It’s not just a gift, it’s a burden. Suddenly, it’s up to us to define who we are, how we live, what we stand for.
That’s where Sartre’s quote comes in—possibly ... See more
That’s where Sartre’s quote comes in—possibly ... See more
Peter Spear • Zach Lamb on Meaning & Crisis
Post-heroic stories are less about strength and more about compassion. Like the rich body of old European stories about the quest for the Grail, in which the question the adventuring knight must ask in order to gain the Grail, heal the wound of the Fisher King, and so heal the Wasteland, is a simple, pointed, empathic, ‘What ails thee?’ The answer
... See moreThe key is that environmental storytelling shifts emphasis from ego to eco: the hero is not a solitary victor but part of a web of life. Entangled narratives portray how a change in one part of the system reverberates through the whole – much as in reality, where, for example, the loss of a keystone species can transform an entire ecosystem (the wa
... See moreWhether through imaginative engagement or literal neural synchrony, the psychology of narrative suggests that we crave stories aligning with how we actually think and remember. And how we think is often non-linear: full of associations, symbols, and relational webs. Thus, storytelling that “mirrors the mind” – with its tangents, recursions, and net
... See moreThe reason we “need stories that mirror the mind of the world” is because stories are one of the primary tools we have to understand ourselves and our place in the world. If the world has changed – if our awareness has expanded to see the complex, fragile networks we exist in – then our stories must change too. By grounding this evolution in resear
... See moreMythopoeia is powerful because its focus is unabashedly meaning without the need for historicity and “hard” logic—it is the intuitive quality of dreams brought to bear upon the waking world. It is important on one hand because it makes for better fantastic worlds and tales; on the other it bears a power of its own that cannot be found in any other ... See more
Modern Mythopoeia
In such a framework, the individual consciousness does not generate archetypes; rather, it tunes into them. Archetypes, in this model, become informational packets or dynamic structures within a symbolic matrix, activated not by rational intent but by experiential resonance. Certain life events, emotional intensities, or altered states — such as dr... See more
Reassessing the Theory of the Collective Unconscious: Symbolic Utility, Philosophical Depth, and…
Evolutionary psychologists propose that storytelling has an adaptive function: it helps us make sense of non-routine, uncertain or novel situations collectively (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). We tell stories to each other to explain the unexplainable, to find patterns in chaos, and to navigate uncertainty together. In a complex world, stories that reflec
... See moreSome researchers even speak of “mythic cognition” in AI – using archetypal narratives as a framework for AI-generated storiesincreasinglyunclear.medium.comdegruyterbrill.com. While that’s nascent, it points to a fusion of the oldest storytelling with the newest technology. Importantly, this union can help in creating stories that feel meaningful
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