The Power of Narrative and Mozzarella Sticks

Looking at some of my classmates posts, I appear to have taken this in an entirely different direction. However, I promised myself that I would use the first narrative-esque post that came across my Tumblr dash, and so I did. Caity Weaver’s Gawker article “My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers” does not seem to be arguing for the power of narrative on the surface, but is instead a practical application of the concept.

Weaver did not need to craft a full narrative to get her point across. Frankly, the title alone communicates her argument: if she was there for 14 hours, there is very likely no real end to the endless appetizers. It isn’t even very far into the article that she informs us plainly of her findings.

I wanted to call their bluff and eat appetizers until they kicked me out, to seek the limit of this supposedly limitless publicity stunt. I soon learned the limit does not exist.

However, that is not enough for Weaver. She proceeds to live up to her name, weaving a narrative that transcends from a simple report of events to an epic quest for the end of her endless mozzarella sticks. She gives us a highly detailed setting, a cast of additional characters coming in and out of the story, and a clearly defined set of events, including two types of timeline (timestamps and plate number). She tells the audience how she feels about each new development and discovery, providing a stream-of-consciousness style narrative that delights the reader with the oddity of her ideas and slow slip into casual-dining-induced madness. It is over 6000 words of discomfort and mundanity, but it is still the kind of story I couldn’t put down.

Though the word “narrative” is not mentioned anywhere in this piece, Weaver has still showcased its power. This is less about the ability of a narrative to persuade a reader to think like the author and more about the ability of a narrative to persuade the reader to read at all. The title implies that there is a story to be told here, and despite being told the outcome before the narrative even begins, readers may find themselves powerless to walk away before they know what exactly that story is. Weaver’s narrative serves to prove her argument, that TGI Friday’s endless appetizers are in fact endless, but its larger purpose is to entertain the audience. To quote the Tumblr I found this in, this is “the best thing I’ve read in in a long time.” Weaver may not have set out to prove the power of narrative, but that is what she did when she took the baseline narrative “A woman ordered mozzarella sticks” and turned it into a work of art.