The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance • Monsta X

Afterward

As always, thanks for reading (and congrats on making it through yet another angsty work)! This is the part of the show where I hand out a few thank yous and throw some research at you.

First, a big thank you to myshatae, who introduced me to the movie "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" from which I stole a title and a little dialogue. Watching this film honestly got me through a period of writer's block and helped me finish the story when I'd been stuck on the ending. So, if you're unhappy with the ending – well, I don't want to say it's Mysha's fault per se, but...mayhaps :)

The title of this work is a reference to the movie (partially because I thought it fit well and also because I'm lazy and hate naming things). A sort of bonus reference to the movie is seen in the last bits of dialogue between Hyungwon and Hyunwoo. In "Birdman," the play within the movie ends after Riggan says the final lines, "I don't exist. I'm not even here. I don't exist. None of this matters" before the character's death. Hyungwon says these words before his death, and Hyunwoo repeats Hyungwon.

Since the play within "Birdman" is an adaptation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," I decided to introduce each chapter with a quote from Carver. Again, just me thieving from better writers. So that's just another tip of the hat to "Birdman" and its origins since I was rather fascinated by the film. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a confusing and perplexing watch.

As for the research behind this book (is this really a book? It's only around 42K words...a novella, perhaps?), I'd like to provide some context and sources for you interested readers. I don't know if I did more research before this work than others or if I simply saved more sources, but I'll just put the main highlights here since I had a lot of material saved. Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist; I'm simply a curious person with access to the internet, so don't mistake my curiosity for legitimate credibility. That said, feel free to ask any questions, and I'll answer with what I know.

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1) In the chapter where Hoseok explains some of the psychological theory behind coping mechanisms, he mentions four categories. Now, this is just according to one particular study I found, but I think it holds up fairly well with other models. As mentioned previously, the four main strategies identified are "avoidant coping, internalized coping, angry coping, and active/social coping" (see School Age Children's Coping...). Avoidant coping mechanisms were found to result in fewer behavioral problems but increased sexual anxieties, and internalized coping resulted in "increased guilt and PTSD hyperarousal symptoms." Active/social coping was found to have no clear relation to either symptoms or benefits, and angry coping resulted in a variety of behavioral and emotional issues.

2) The ending of this piece frequently mentions "invisibility." I found this interesting because "Birdman" seems to be in constant tension with the idea of visibility; the main character is fighting desperately to be visible, to be something, to be remembered. Hyungwon, in the end, wants just the opposite. This is a result of his coping mechanism, which is described a bit in chapter 7.

Hoseok notes that Hyungwon is utilizing some form of dissociation (an avoidant coping mechanism) to distance himself from his trauma. With dissociative coping strategies, the subject "develops the ability to mentally leave the abusive event as it is happening. The journey they make is inside their heads, to try to find a safe place" (see How Do Children Cope...). Similarly, individuals may try to block out trauma with the aid of substances such as alcohol or drugs in an effort to repress memories or emotions.

While both these mechanisms apply to Hyungwon in part, the coping strategy most emphasized in the ending is known as "disappearing," also known as "fading" or "spacing out" (see How Do Children Cope...). This section of the article was rather interesting: "I used to work with a girl and you could almost see her shutters come down. Physically they are present but actually they have gone inside their heads. One of the adult survivors I worked with described to me how she would spend up to a third of her waking day 'invisible.' ...she was pretty sure that when she was in this state other people stopped seeing her." As with dissociative strategies, "disappearing" is the individual's attempt to avoid dealing with the real world.