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Narrative fatigue is not confusion.

It is saturation.

It occurs when stories no longer reduce pressure.

The same explanations repeat.
The same roles recycle.
The same conflicts resurface with new labels.

Orientation stops improving.

Attention grows tired.

This is not apathy.

It is recognition without novelty.

Narrative fatigue appears when stabilization overshoots.

Too much meaning.
Too much interpretation.
Too much insistence.

Stories begin to feel heavy.

Not because they are false, but because they are exhausted.

They no longer clarify.
They only occupy.

At this point, belief weakens without being challenged.

Participation declines without rebellion.

People stop arguing.

They stop explaining.

They disengage quietly.

This is not collapse.

It is withdrawal of investment.

Narrative fatigue does not destroy myths.

It renders them inert.

The words still circulate.
The symbols still appear.

But attention no longer binds.

This is why systems misread fatigue as threat.

They respond by increasing intensity.

More urgency.
Sharper contrast.
Higher emotional charge.

This temporarily restores engagement.

But it accelerates exhaustion.

Fatigue deepens.

Narrative turnover follows.

Not because people demand truth, but because they demand relief.

New stories are tried.

Most fail.

A few reduce pressure again.

Those persist.

This is not awakening.

It is cycling.

But narrative fatigue creates space.

When stories loosen, silence becomes tolerable.

When explanation recedes, experience comes forward.

This is often mistaken for emptiness.

It is not.

It is unoccupied capacity.

The sequence does not frame fatigue as failure.

It shows it as a signal.

Narratives fatigue when their regulatory function is complete.

From here, either new stories arise, or attention rests without them.

Both are structurally valid.