That Munchausen: Hunting Tales

There is a myth in everyday consciousness that manipulation is always bad, and manipulators are unworthy people. It is easy to show that this is not the case at all: in some situations, a variety of people manipulate and in the name of a variety of goals. It is true that manipulations, that is, methods of hidden psychological influence, are often resorted to by people of little integrity, using manipulations in their favor against the interests of other people. But it is also true that excellent people of high decency also use manipulations, caring not only for their own interests, but also for the joy and benefit of their partners and interlocutors.

We will try to show this on the basis of a small episode from the life of the hero of the film “The Same Munchausen”, when Baron Karl Hieronymus von Munchausen entertained the hunting company with his hunting stories in the early morning. Note: he was not lazy, did not sleep, did not remain silent, but composed his stories on the go and skillfully told them. This is real creativity and excellent acting work, like the work of any talented storyteller.

And the trick is that any talented storyteller is a skilled manipulator. Both a dinner without salt and a vivid story that captures the attention of the audience are never complete without minor manipulations on the part of the narrator. And we will try to show it.

Based on the original text of Grigory Gorin, slightly edited for a real film. Gorin’s text is in bold. So,

First there was fog. Then it dissipated, and a group of hunters in XNUMXth-century clothes became visible. (However, the hunters always dressed in approximately the same way.) Their bewildered glances were fixed on a tall man with cheerful eyes, in a wig, with a smoking tue in his teeth. He had just said something that caused the shocked hunters to freeze with their mouths open.

We note that people often listened to this man with their mouths open in surprise, for the name of the narrator was Baron Munchausen. Full name — Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchausen.

We caught him at the moment when the famous storyteller was enjoying a pause.

The Baron is seated in a well-chosen pose, with his head high and his right elbow outstretched, occupying space beautifully. He is used to being a leader, and leadership is provided by such means of spatial organization of communication.

Do you know how to sit like that? Do you do such elbows? Used to do?

And — Baron Munchausen pauses. He pulls a pause, he keeps the interlocutors on pause — he attracts attention to himself. This is a manipulative technique to emphasize the importance of what is about to be said.

Now he can say whatever he wants, and it will sound already weighty and convincing.

After waiting for a theatrical pause, he uttered the first phrase:

— But that is not all!

— Not all? said one of the hunters.

“Not all,” Munchausen confirmed. “We held out and struck from the flank. I led a detachment of dragoons through the quagmire, but my horse stumbled and we began to sink. The situation was desperate. It was necessary to choose one of two things: to die or to be saved somehow.

— Well … And what did you choose? asked one of the most experienced hunters.

The Baron is in no hurry to answer… The Baron pauses, and this is a manipulative seizure… Note that the people are turned on, the people are in a situation (translate — in a trance state of moderate severity). What the baron needs, which speaks of his high manipulative qualifications.

Then his hand slowly reached for a large platter of fiery red cherries, and, elegantly spitting out the pit,

He switched his attention from his face to his hand, then back to his face — a normal course of maintaining attention and maintaining listeners in a trance state.

By the way, with regard to the length of the pauses. If you imagine that he pauses for a couple of seconds less, there will be a shortage, five seconds more — there will already be a freeze and the interlocutors will fall out of the capture. Two or three exhalations — it’s time to speak, and you need to start talking on the exhalation of yourself and your interlocutors. Missed — it will no longer be funny and not convincing.

he said: Guess!

Pause. Munchausen chews. Waiting. He gave the order to guess — the people must fulfill what was said. One of the hunters is looking for support from a neighbor (Munchausen’s servants — there is no help and support … However,

There was a general sigh of relief.

Munchausen is already a savior! He saved the people from difficult experiences and from difficult guessing. And technically, the people feel good because Munchausen defuses the tension — on time. Skillfully created tension — discharged in time. There is practically nothing else here.

I decided to save myself! Munchausen continued quickly. — But how? No rope! Not six! Nothing!

So that the people do not suddenly begin to think in an unnecessary direction about the fact that the choice was actually bullshit and there was nothing to choose, Munchausen takes the discussion in a new direction: he poses a new question “how to be saved?”

“And then it dawned on me. Munchausen happily pointed his finger at his forehead. — Head! The head is always at hand, gentlemen! I grabbed my hair with my hand and pulled with all my strength. And I have a hand, thank God, uh-huh! strong,

Inspiration!

head, thank God, thinking …

eyes to the left, eyes to the right… Audience control.

In a word, I rushed …

a sharp change in intonation: a failure in tempo-rhythm and switching from peppy activity to pulling suffering …

and pulled himself out of the swamp …

Again, a sharp change in intonation — like spitting out a bone. Back to control again. I looked at those … I looked at these …

… along with the horse.

Addendum. Eyes right-left controls the situation. See if it fits or not?

There was silence again.

What happened? The baron told a story — for Oleg Yankovsky, this is a normal acting sketch. Yankovsky had some text, the text was memorized, in life such texts are invented — in advance or on the go, and the task was for both the baron and Oleg Yankovsky to pronounce this text so that he would remain in history as a great storyteller. What did he use? Spectacular poses, pause, attention control leading to a trance state of listeners, rhetorical questions that can be answered in an almost unambiguous (needed by the narrator) way. The richest gestures, the richest expression on the face, catches and holds the audience with the eyes, leads it in the right direction …

You can do this as an exercise: put your palms outstretched and spread your fingers forward and imagine that energy rays are coming from your fingers … Imagine? And you reach everyone with them, everyone ends up on your strings, and literally everything ends up in your hands. When you have this feeling in your hands, when you tell something to people with this feeling in your hands, your listeners will be in your hands. Munchausen outwardly does nothing with his hands, but look at how he holds himself — you can be sure that he has an inner feeling of «I’m holding you.»

As for facial expressions. Bright and fast alternations of muzzles are characteristic primarily for women, men know how and practice this less often, and from this point of view, Munchausen is quite a woman. And the task is the same — attracting and fixing attention, winning listeners. Did you read well? — Winning listeners.

Are the listeners subjects or objects? How to say … On the one hand — friends for whom he tries. On the other hand, these are objects that he manipulates like a narrator.

“Are you saying,” one of the hunters blinked his eyes, “that a man can lift himself up by his hair?”

“Definitely,” Munchausen said firmly. “A thinking person simply has to do this from time to time.

typical manipulation. Intentionally did not understand the interlocutor and answered the wrong question that was asked to him. However, on the other hand, this is an excellent illustration of a leader’s interpretation: the ability to understand how it is beneficial for you, and further promote the topic you need.

— Ha … Nonsense! one of the hunters decided hesitantly to formulate.

He says, «Bullshit!» Are you sure he doesn’t believe it? Look at this face: he has already turned on, he already believes in Munchausen, but he is still trying to resist, trying to get out from under Munchausen. But getting out from under Munchausen is not easy.

— Impossible. Where is the evidence?

— I’m alive? … That’s it, — almost teaching, Munchausen answered.

This is called «referring to reality». You can say whatever you want, but if from time to time you refer to completely real things that seem to have a connection with what you are saying, then the credibility of your story increases significantly. Link the unrelated, and if at least one of the components is “solid” (“Am I alive?”) And you assert the link confidently, the link works. «There’s a store, see? — I see. Go get some bread!» And he went.

And pay attention: Munchausen began to turn away and fall off to the side. Why? What for? He decisively closes the conversation. “Everything, I said everything! Everything, everything is clear!” He does not consult, he asserts. He does it forcibly, but beautifully, gracefully, and everyone accepts it.

Let’s try to summarize:

Is it possible, if desired, to nail Baron von Munchausen with the stigma of a manipulator in the style of Everett Shostrom? Maybe yes. Do you remember what the wording was?

“The manipulator is a slave to the addiction of pretending and straining to hide his true intentions behind false masks. The manipulator lives in a lie and turns himself into a machine, and the other person into an unrespected object, depriving himself of the possibility of love and intimacy … ”And so on.

If desired, it is quite possible to write that the typical manner of communication of Baron Hieronymus von Munchausen is subject-object, and not subject-subject interaction. It can be argued that he does not see people in partners, but only objects that need to be impressed. There is reason to emphasize that his communication is not honest and open, but closed and manipulative, using stretches, tricks, substitution of theses, trance states and other disrespect for partners, up to elements of psychological violence … You can immediately sigh that all your efforts are a baron Munchausen spends on creating an image, on creating an external impression, on “appearing” (according to Fromm and Shostrom). Yes, all this can be done, and there will definitely be some truth in it.

But is it the whole truth?

Probably not all. Because the other truth is that Baron Carl Hieronymus von Munchausen is a delightful storyteller, everyone’s favorite, a most interesting man and a decent person. Maybe, after all, not everyone who once tells hunting stories in the early morning, riveting the attention of the audience to himself, is a terrible manipulator?