Well, these are big questions you’re asking, and I’ve addressed them in some articles I’ll link to below. You’re thinking of “stories” in a pejorative sense, as in “Life is just a story.” In the cosmic scale, which I emphasize here, our species indeed looks like an idiot’s tale. But not all stories are equal in aesthetic merit, existential gravitas, or creative vision. There’s a noble Promethean, Luciferian aspect to storytelling, to replacing the wildness of nature’s art with an intelligently designed order (civilization), however tragic that heroism may be in the end.
In short, I aim to combine existentialism with cosmicism (dark philosophical naturalism) and pantheism, and to reconstruct moral values in aesthetic terms.
As for parties, obviously the quality of the entertainment depends on who’s present. I’ve had some mind-melds with fellow thinkers, often in bars over beer. But philosophical types are more likely introverted than extroverted, which means parties as such will bore or appall them. Parties are often abysses of small talk and of displays of conspicuous consumption. The implicit contest is to speak as much as possible about how well you’re doing in life in strictly neoliberal terms, about your vacations, your children, how busy you are at work, and so on. So, I learned not to talk philosophy at these showcases of mental mediocrity.
