01.23.06
Posted in culture at 3:12 pm by Brandon
I attended a lecture, of sorts, today. It was more of an exposition of storytelling that was rooted distinctly in the religio-ethnicity of the Jewish storytellers who told the stories. I loved it.
As they told their stories and sang their songs, I got to thinking. Particularly, I was struck by the ways that folktales tend to pop back up into the rhetoric of the day. Folklore is a particularly fascinating set of stories that relate the moral lessons of a society, religion, or culture into a popularly palatable tale.
In introducing these folks to the community of hearers their introducer made a passing comment about the “soundbyte” nature of 21st century culture. The person giving the introduction made it seem as if the fine art of storytelling was nearly dead. On one level, I agree with his assessment. After all, the act of remembering stories together seems to be quickly falling to the wayside in the medium of television. More and more reality TV, the portrayal of real life, real time circumstances is becoming the preferred subject matter for the US subculture. After all, it’s much easier to seamlessly add a product placement into a reality tv show than it is during a sit-com. Advertisement may well prove to be a damning blow to the act of storytelling on television.
On the other hand, it seems that popular folklore is alive and well in some genre. Now, it’s rare that you’ll find the out and out portrayal of traditional folktales in television media; however, what’s more common is the portrayal of particular character types that come directly out of traditional folklore–whether the audience realizes it or not.
In what I hope will become a series (thus the volume 1 designation of this post), I’d like to take some time to explore these character types in the modern media and muse a bit about the use of these pre-fabricated characters in modern storytelling. Because of the use of these ancient character roles and the reliance on these cultural stories, it is my contention that the act of modern storytelling is alive and well in the contemporary media. Yet, despite the prevalence of the telling of stories in the media, our cultural values are often frighteningly present in the stories of our mass media. I will look at the good and the bad of contemporary cultural portrayals in order to find those cultural values that are being delivered into our homes.
Any thoughts on this exploit would be coveted! I hope you’ll join in the discussion!
And, as a teaser, I’ll tip you off to my first topic. Bart Simpson - Trickster extrordinare. This should be fun.
Tags: Storytelling, Media, TV, Folklore
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Posted in culture at 3:12 pm by Brandon
I attended a lecture, of sorts, today. It was more of an exposition of storytelling that was rooted distinctly in the religio-ethnicity of the Jewish storytellers who told the stories. I loved it.
As they told their stories and sang their songs, I got to thinking. Particularly, I was struck by the ways that folktales tend to pop back up into the rhetoric of the day. Folklore is a particularly fascinating set of stories that relate the moral lessons of a society, religion, or culture into a popularly palatable tale.
In introducing these folks to the community of hearers their introducer made a passing comment about the “soundbyte” nature of 21st century culture. The person giving the introduction made it seem as if the fine art of storytelling was nearly dead. On one level, I agree with his assessment. After all, the act of remembering stories together seems to be quickly falling to the wayside in the medium of television. More and more reality TV, the portrayal of real life, real time circumstances is becoming the preferred subject matter for the US subculture. After all, it’s much easier to seamlessly add a product placement into a reality tv show than it is during a sit-com. Advertisement may well prove to be a damning blow to the act of storytelling on television.
On the other hand, it seems that popular folklore is alive and well in some genre. Now, it’s rare that you’ll find the out and out portrayal of traditional folktales in television media; however, what’s more common is the portrayal of particular character types that come directly out of traditional folklore–whether the audience realizes it or not.
In what I hope will become a series (thus the volume 1 designation of this post), I’d like to take some time to explore these character types in the modern media and muse a bit about the use of these pre-fabricated characters in modern storytelling. Because of the use of these ancient character roles and the reliance on these cultural stories, it is my contention that the act of modern storytelling is alive and well in the contemporary media. Yet, despite the prevalence of the telling of stories in the media, our cultural values are often frighteningly present in the stories of our mass media. I will look at the good and the bad of contemporary cultural portrayals in order to find those cultural values that are being delivered into our homes.
Any thoughts on this exploit would be coveted! I hope you’ll join in the discussion!
And, as a teaser, I’ll tip you off to my first topic. Bart Simpson - Trickster extrordinare. This should be fun.
Tags: Storytelling, Media, TV, Folklore
Permalink
Trackback URL »
http://www.badchristian.com/2006/01/23/telling-our-stories-vol-i/trackback/
Frank said,
January 23, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Upon hearing anything about the art of storytelling, I right off think about like old school radio programs and stuff like that. I really have never heard a radio-story or anything like that, but it sounds pretty cool.
I can really think of nothing more relaxing than having someone tell me a story… perhaps that’s why it’s become a bedtime ritual…
Dan Lewis said,
January 23, 2006 at 9:44 pm
I’ve thought for a while that The Simpsons is less a sitcom than a storytelling medium. It abounds with types, but then so many characters get their own episodes to play against type, like the one where Flanders has an anger problem, or Homer has a crayon removed from his brain and becomes a genius, or Bart makes friends with Principal Skinner, or Marge becomes an entrepreneuse, or Lisa gets popular. Etc.
But then these complex characters playing against type get thrust into classic and not-so-classic stories like Hamlet, the exodus from Egypt, who shot JR, The Shining, Thelma and Louise, Hansel and Gretel, the Odyssey, Fantastic Voyage, etc., and the funny thing is, they’re often cast to type. It’s hard not to see these fictional characters as thespians in their own rights. They did a great show about that fact in the VH1 parody “Behind the Laughter”.
Time to stop talking about the Simpsons.
I’ve also been enjoying this new show The Book of Daniel, which is about an Episcopalian priest addicted to painkillers who sees Jesus regularly, and his similarly dysfunctional family and parishioners. It’s great to see them all playing against type, and it’s a sure antidote to the bland portrayal of Christianity in 7th Heaven. The types are all there, but they’re the wrong people: the good son is gay, the Asian son is the promiscuous goof-off, the artist daughter deals pot, the Catholic priest is a mafioso, etc.
My wife doesn’t like it because it’s too edgy, but I can’t wait to see what Jesus is going to do next.
Brandon said,
January 23, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Amazingly, Dan, my next post (even before your comment) was slated–and will be–about one of the most popular storytelling roles, that of the prankster, and the way that Bart Simpson gloriously fits into that folkloric role.
In fact, much of the series will be about the Simpsons. So, stick around, I think you’ll like this set of posts.
Kevin said,
January 23, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Regarding folk tales and myth, superheroes are our modern equivelant in many respects. Spiderman, Superman, Batman, these are our Greek and Roman gods (and in the case of many superheroes, like Wonder Woman and Thor, our superheroes have been lifted from past myths).
It’s also interesting to note that our modern myths are owned by for-profit corporations, whereas in the past these tales were “owned” and shared by everyone.
I would also recommend, Brandon, that you check out the work of author Neil Gaiman. He’s very much a storyteller for people in love with story. His novel American Gods, for example, blends Americana, fantasy, and strands of ancient and modern mythology, exploring the relationship between gods of the past and present. And his series of Sandman graphic novels is all about myth and story, among many other things.
Dan Lewis said,
January 24, 2006 at 1:15 am
Brandon, your teaser was enough to get me started. I will try to stay below ten paragraphs per bloviation.
I’ve never read anything by Northrop Frye, but I did read that he’d tried to boil down stories along two independent axes: Tragedy/Comedy and Satire/Romance. I think this story space covers a lot of ground. Another guy (Paul Kassel, a drama teacher) said as a parallel that all dramatic roles boil down to Hero, Villain, Lover, and Clown. The Hero opposes the Villain, creation vs. destruction. The Lover opposes the Clown, connection vs. dissolution.
I’ve never read Joseph Campbell either, but his name always seems to come up in these discussions.
Add another vote for Neil Gaiman. I also liked Neverwhere but I hear not everybody does.