Hunter and Autumn discuss an article featured in the New Yorker, written by Parul Seghal, entitled The Case Against the Trauma Plot. Seghal posits that the "trauma plot" has become the primary narrative device used by script writers and authors during the past few decades. The "trauma plot" promises, via revelation of a person's past, to explain their idiosyncrasies, personality quirks, and failures in the present. The device rings hollow, though, as character after character become locked into a determinant version of themselves in the future.

The popularization of the trauma plot holds a certain allure. It convinces us that we, too, can understand and type people in the present through the story of their past. The gospel, though, shatters the trajectory of the trauma plot. In Christ we are not just our past. In fact, II Corinthians 5 declares us "a new creation."

Mentioned in this episode:
"The Case Against the Trauma Plot" by Parul Seghal (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/03/the-case-against-the-trauma-plot)
"Crossroads" by Jonathan Franzen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374181179)