I’m glad I didn’t make any promises as to how many posts I would do on this subject. I even debated leaving it off at the last one. “Stories and Fractals Part 1 of 1” It’s all pretty much there besides the details, the quotes and the references. But I guess that’s the nice thing about posts. You can pick and choose what you want to read. So lets go into some depth about stories.
A number of years ago, my mom gave me the book A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. The premise was discussing how the job market was switching from needing skills that were more left brain dominant to ones that are more right brain dominant. It was a fascinating read with a lot of good points. One of the sections was on the importance of stories. He has a great way of showing significance by getting readers to imagine the way cave people would do things, thus conceptualizing origins of various aspects of human life.
“Story is just as integral to the human experience as design. Think about that loincloth-draped prehistoric guy I mentioned last chapter-the one scraping flint against a rock and becoming a designer. When evening fell and he and his buddies returned home, they probably sat around the campfire trading tales about escaping saber-toothed tigers or renovating the family cave. His brain, like ours, had an internal “story grammar” that helped him understand the world not as a set of logical propositions but as a pattern of experiences. He explained himself and connected to others through stories.”
I like this type of thing because it’s pointing out such a basic way in which we operate. The idea of stories being a pattern, is particularly fascinating and an integral part of the goal of these posts. He goes on to reference Joseph Campbell, going into more depth with this idea of the pattern of stories.
“In his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell argued that all myths-across time and across cultures-contain the same basic ingredients and follow the same general recipe. There are never any new stories, he said-just the same stories retold. And the overarching story, the blueprint for tales since humankind’s earliest days, is the “hero’s journey.” The hero’s journey has three main parts: Departure, Initiation, and Return. The hero hears a call, refuses it at first, and then crosses the threshold into a new world, during initiation, he faces stiff challenges and stares into the abyss. But along the way- usually with the help of mentors who give the hero a divine gift-he transforms and becomes at one with his new self. Then he returns, becoming the master of two worlds, committed to improving each. This structure underlies Homer’s Odyssey, the story of Buddha, the legend of King Arthur, the story of Sacagawea, Huckleberry Finn, Star Wars, The Matrix, and, Campbell would have argued, just about every other epic tale.”
I remember in my freshman english class one of the most fascinating concepts for me was learning who the main character was. The assumption before hand was that the main character was who the story was about. As it turns out, it is actually the character that changes throughout the story. Some stories are about a static character while the main character is not the focus. Sometimes, there’s more than one main character. This made me re-think all the stories I’d read, heard or seen. In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker isn’t the main character, Darth Vader is. He turns good at the end and kills the emperor. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is the main character not Belle. In Pulp Fiction, pretty much everyone is a main character (maybe why it was such an interesting/popular movie?) Change and growth are what makes the story. Also, it usually happens through some type of stress. Change and growth through stress, this is the pattern.
An interesting thing about this pattern, is it seems to speak to our sense of meaning. It’s a pattern we follow in our own lives; which makes telling, reading, and hearing stories such an integral part of being human. This is probably part of the reason we feel attachment and even cry at times when hearing stories that speak to us.
Now in conclusion, Id like to share one of my favorite stories that I’ve written. It’s a fairly quick read I think.
A Tale of Two Ducks
Reed and Lou were sitting by the river bank, watching the water swirl through the eddies. It was a nice day out. Mostly clear with a few wispy clouds on the horizon. It was mid afternoon, the sun still high in the sky, but on it’s way down. Lou was a bit older than Reed, he had spent the early years of his life on a foie gras farm until he escaped. He was then taken home by some children to live on a private lake until the family abandoned the property and the lake dried up. The next few years he spent roaming through twelve different states until he finally found a family in this flock and came to call the river his summer home. Reed knew all this about Lou. He had heard the stories many times. But there was one thing he never had asked. He slowly turned to Lou “Quack Quack Quack Quack?” Lou sat in silence, memories from his past flooding back. After a while he spoke, “Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack; Quack Quack Quack.” Reed stared in amazement “Quack!? Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack! Quack…Quack Quack Quack?” Lou gave a little chuckle at the innocence of the young duck and asked him, “Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack Quack?” Reed thought about this for a while. Now he was put on the spot. He swished his beak in the water, stomped his feet around, stared at the sky then finally let out a long sigh, “Quack Quack Quack Quack. Quack, Quack Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack; Quack Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack. Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack.” He turned to look at the older duck, unsure of what his reaction would be. Lou looked back at Reed… and smiled. “Quack Quack! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack? Quack Quack Quack!” Reed jumped up in excitement and gave Lou a slap on the shoulder. “Quack Quack?! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack! Quack Quack!” And with that, they took off into the setting sun to go have adventures together.