GROUP CHAT Episode Six
What is the point of GROUP CHAT?
Previously on GROUP CHAT: Rachel Cusk and Natalie Portman, more on transgressive literature, and bookshelves versus edibles as the truest representation of the self.
This week: The pill of a greater god.
In Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous identify the ability to “believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity” as one of the vital responsibilities of recovery from alcoholism. What unique challenges does such a responsibility pose to that most mercurial of personalities, the writer? Is it possible for people who make it their purpose in life to expose and test the realities of the human condition to recognize that they themselves are subject to its vicissitudes? This week the cast of GROUP CHAT is forced to take up these questions in real time.
Last week, several members of the GROUP CHAT cast underwent a process of self-reflection that led them to reckon with their identities as television personalities, as writers, and as people. This week, the arrival of a new castmate prompts them to project that interrogation outward:
Having only just arrived, Audrey is still secure enough in her own identity to submit to questioning without losing her composure and resorting to aggression. For others in the chat, however, the burden of performance seems to have triggered acute crisis. Writers, by nature, prefer to control narratives. What happens to writers when they become another writer’s characters? Can writers, like recovering alcoholics, successfully relinquish control to another, higher power? For some, the pill of a greater god may prove too big to swallow:
Of course, even the author of a text must sometimes answer to critics. Now that Ross is back in New York, he’s free to enjoy the benefits of literary community like attending readings and soliciting gossip. However, he’s also accessible, if not vulnerable, to the designs of the robust GROUP CHAT readership. When he wakes up after a night out to find a mysterious parcel on his doorstep, he enlists the chat to help him puzzle out the identity of an even lesser-known quantity in the GROUP CHAT calculus, the “GROUP CHAT Stalker”:
Is the GROUP CHAT Stalker calling from inside the house? Will Audrey maintain her equanimity? Exactly how and when did Nick’s “milquetoast insolent thing” first emerge? Tune in next week for another episode of GROUP CHAT to see what answers—or further questions—await.
GROUP CHAT is a production of Grey Fiction Media. All episodes are written, directed, edited, and produced by Stephen Piccarella. All original music by Sebastian Castillo.
