Coincidence

“There’s no such thing as coincidence.” I think it was Sherlock Holmes that said that, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I like mysteries, crime shows, and the like, and most of them an idea like this one at one point or another. To be fair, when you are talking about murder, there might not be such a thing as coincidence. But in real life, I feel like coincidences are everywhere!

You just read a book and next thing you know it comes up in casual conversation with a friend. A news article mentions an economic theory you were just studying. Little moments like this that make you feel like everything is connected. For the paranoid sort, maybe it is proof you are in the Matrix. For the rest of us, it is just those little things that make us go “huh, what a small world.” I love these moments. They can be so bizarre and random yet so poignant at the same time. For me, they often touch on unspoken fears or feelings that I haven’t been able to fully articulate yet. They can be the moments that make me think about the larger things at work that my tiny human brain can’t comprehend. Sometimes they are just funny or interesting. The point is they happen all the time.

But when they happen in literature… For some reason, while I am all for coincidences in my real life, I get irked when they happen in literature or other media. It seems lazy or contrived. I find myself disenchanted or worse, angry at the writer.

Why? Why am I so willing to accept coincidence in my real life but not in my fiction? Not that there is an easy answer, but I think part of it is how Americans are taught to appreciate stories. Everything is so linear for us. We don’t like cliff hangers or loopholes. We like neat, tight, cause and effect plots. The random monkey wrench of fate is too much for us. To some extent we will accept coincidence in our stories, how else would anything ever happen, but when the plot hinges on such a coincidence, we feel cheated. This might have something to do with our cultural need to control destiny. I have never encountered a culture so obsessed with the idea of freedom and free will. But that is a blog for another occasion.

Other cultures don’t seem to have this same hang-up. I have talked before about how Japanese literature could sometimes drive me nuts with this sort of thing. It seems others aren’t as bothered by coincidence or the strange workings of fate. Many of the stories I have read or watched from other cultures are filled with these coincidences. Hell, even Shakespeare has more people in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time than I would ever accept from a contemporary American story. No one seems to mind.

Is it just me?