It’s no secret that I love stories: reading, writing, or telling them. Reading stories is easiest for me to do; all I need are the words and my glasses. Once I find the narrator’s voice, we’re off and all I have to look for is when to take a breath. Telling a story is scary and a whole lot of fun, especially if there’s an appreciative audience. When I’m telling stories, the hardest thing for me to know is when to shut up. (I’ll admit it, I’m a natural-born ham.) Writing stories is a different cat altogether; in fact, writing is a cat with claws. As soon as my fingers hit the keys and letters show up on the screen, my inner critic emerges and starts pointing out the obvious flaws. At that point, the tale that was bubbling and aching to get out locks itself behind a gate in my brain. So, what do I do? I’ve learned to take a walk. Taking a walk is something Stephen King mentioned in his wonderful book, On Writing. (Seriously, I’ve read a stack-load of books on the craft of putting down prose and this one makes me believe I can do…
One of my dear friends and fellow book-nuts holds a round-robin post each week. Every Wednesday on her group page, the question appears: What are You Reading Right Now? Everyone responds and it’s a good spot to exchange book news and compare thoughts but I don’t know how to tell them the truth: for each new book I’ve read, I’ve re-read at least 4 or 5 more. My question is: does that make me a nut? A lot of people seem to espouse the “seen this, done that” philosophy. Each new day is a different challenge to accept; every vacation explores a different horizon. One very nice man I know dislikes seeing a movie more than once. For him, one viewing is sufficient and a lot more people seem to read books that way than watch movies. Does my re-reading mean that I’m slow? On one level, I suppose the answer is “yes” but (ironically) it’s because I’m a fast reader. Put a well-paced, interesting book my hands and I’ll rip through the story like a tornado. I’ll pick up the plot and pursue it, scanning the pages faster and faster on a breakneck trip to the end. I’ve…
A friend and I have a running disagreement. We both adore reading but we disagree on taste. To him, the act of reading is everything, what is read is immaterial. I disagree. Yes, reading is better than illiteracy, but not all written works are equal. Quality is one reason why some works disappear why others are revered and reread for centuries. This isn’t due to an edict of teachers or a ruling from the some vicious, artsy elite. It’s because some stories are so well formed they become enduring works of art, works that instruct as well as entertain. They are the classics and there are good reasons to they should be read. Classics are the building blocks of literature. Willa Cather once wrote, “There are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they’d never happened before.” If that’s true, those stories have also become the backbone of world literature but some versions are told so well, they become the standards other writers follow. For example, once The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh jointly created the perfect template for road stories, authors have been stealing from and writing variations on these…
Why do people continue to listen to and create new myths? What purpose do these stories serve? The ancient civilization made myths to explain the universe none of them could understand. That’s not to say they were stupid. These early civilizations laid the roots of our modern day culture and established the primary principals in law, math, science and medicine. We stand on the shoulders of their work. But advances in learning and technology have answered many of the ancient questions originally dealt with by myths. Thunder isn’t controlled some guy named Zeus or Indra or Thor. It’s the result of lightening heated air, impacting colder air. With that discovery we relegated tales of the Thunder Gods to English, Archaeology and Anthropology Majors. Nevertheless, we’ve continued to spin other stories with newer heroes, god and terrible villains. Want to debate me on this? Get set. First it seems like every emerging culture seems to have its own set of stories, right? The Greeks, the Romans, the Norse and lots of other cultures developed complex, interesting mythologies with gods that took an interest in the world of humans. Myths are the creations of a culture and the one I grew up…
Certain literary academic types like to search for the roots of stories. Get a bunch of them together and pretty soon you’ll start hearing terms like “origin myth” and “archetype” being bandied about. (Well, that’s what you hear when you serve them tea and coffee. Serve booze and you may get something entirely different) That’s because these thinkers spend a lot of their lives trying to understand humanity and culture through its literature and art. Stories and characters are created to answer needs in the human psyche and some needs are so deeply rooted we don’t completely understand how or why they exist. But because they exist, each generation makes up its own stories that revive or reinvent these characters and their adventures. The stories gain or lose shades of complexity that correspond to aspects of the era it was hatched in but certain characters (or archetypes) reappear from one generation to the next and in stories from very different cultures. Look anywhere in the pages World Literature and you’ll find the Wise Old Mentor or the terrifying Shade. You’ll also find my personal favorite there: the Trickster, the wildest, most entertaining Hero in the pack. Separating the Heroes…