Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva and Selling Stories

This past weekend, I ordered the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva boxing match and watched it with a group of friends. It is a funny thing paying money for the potential of watching someone lose, but that is what happened in ordering this boxing match. Me and my friends wanted Anderson Silva to win, but more specifically, Jake Paul to lose. Paul was in the toughest boxing match that he’s had so far, but he ended up winning the bout. There is something frustrating about this person who made his fame through YouTube fighting hand-picked opponents in boxing matches, usually former MMA fighters that are much older than him, and at times, much smaller than him. It worked though because we put down money to watch him lose, and we were the ones left feeling like we lost. We paid and played into the hands of these people and the narrative that they put together.

I suppose that writing a book and wanting to sell it to people has that commonality. I write a story and want to sell it to general audiences. The audience does get a sort of escapism, as that is what most forms of entertainment are meant to do. Of course, I am not selling a fight and purposefully making myself a bad guy to sell tickets. I am a potential author hoping one day to sell my books. We are both trying to sell a story of some sort though.

Their story was entirely visual whereas my story is something that one reads. I am selling fiction, and in a way, Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva was selling a sort of fiction as well.