Comments on: Humanity, suspense and surprise in storytelling

By: The Coffee is Percolating « Notes from Around the Block

The Coffee is Percolating « Notes from Around the Block — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:09:57 +0000

[...] twisted into stories, will be part of the book that I didn’t realize I was writing until someone (another tutor) suggested this notion to [...]

By: andreaskluth

andreaskluth — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:38:41 +0000

I think the root cause is a certain vulgarization. For instance: there is a fine and sliding line between profanity and humor. If you’re in very sophisticated company (especially in Britain), then you will never hear swear words, until…. you suddenly hear one, and then it will be hilarious, not vulgar. When Yanks are present, they usually blush or faint, and make everybody feel bad. But it would be vulgar not to use the word if that’s the word that fits.
So it’s all about context. And it takes both (cultural) confidence and sophistication to know context….
Same with serious/funny: Ira Glass has the cojones to go with the flow. There are always some listeners who are offended by something or other. Well, bye-bye.

By: Mr. Crotchety

Mr. Crotchety — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:15:20 +0000

Serious or funny. What is the root cause of this? Are journalists taught to polarize everything? Does this polarization percolate thru society from advertising? It comforts people to know with certainty what sort of story they’re hearing. The laugh track is reassuring for this reason. All kinds of things are polarized; if you’re not good, you’re bad. If you’re not early, you’re late. It’s maddening because we (and things) are a composite. Every thing oscillates at some scale and together; everything constitutes a continuum. Maybe solitary hydrogen atoms are truly either serious or funny.

By: Steve B

Steve B — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:00:22 +0000

stories whose aesthetic is surprise
portray people at exactly human scale.
something is about to occurr.
heading in a direction.
not about reason but emotion.
raising and answering questions
can’t get out.
bigger, universal something
Action, action, action and then thought.

Based on the proffered attributes of a great story, I suggest that our inner-voices or so-called mind talk are the greatest story tellers. At least mine, meets the criteria to a “T”. Even the most boring uneventful existence is a great story when told by the actor’s inner voice. Can you think of good examples of this in great literature.Aren’t there a multitude of literally examples of this? Like the mind talk revealed in the Old Man and the Sea. Pretty much a megaphone to the inner thoughts of the fisherman as he experiences what we all cherish as a compelling and gripping example of one man’s journey. Simple, compelling, something is about to occur, we are stuck on that boat with him, eating raw tuna, feeling the sting of the salt water on the hand wounds, can’t get out, action action action and then …the sharks….resolve. The hair is going up on the back of my neck……

By: Cheri Block Sabraw

Cheri Block Sabraw — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:12:14 +0000

Wonderful post.

My last year at U.O.P. I indulged myself and enrolled in a course called Storytelling and Creative Drama taught by Dr. Dewey Chambers, the most popular professor on campus. Funny– his class I remember well while other more heady ones, I do not.

We would find great stories, learn to tell them, and venture into schools all over Stockton. Children and teens let us know quickly if we were telling that story well. Or not.

I remember one football player-type guy, an enormous man, very shy, who told Kipling’s
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.With his arm, undulating like a python, and his hand , shaped like the snake’s head, he had those kids in South Stockton mesmerized. That memory goes back 38 years!

All of the points you highlight are not only crucial in the art of storytelling, but also in the art of teaching, as you may have found with your journalism students at Cal.

The great teachers employ many of Ira Glass’s steps in that they ask students to come along with them, down the road of physics (that’s for Mr. Crotchety) or literature. I still ask my students to come with me, say, into the study of a story. A story about a story.

Education is all one big story: the catch is, how and what you use to tell it!