Early primitive man communicated stories with pictures. Later came language and stories were passed around at campfires. Which were then communicated orally by others. And eventually written language became another vehicle of story, with live plays adding a new level of reality. And finally, when the mass production of printed material became available, stories became available in great supply to humanity. Opening up so many worlds to cultures all around the planet. Of course, it took many centuries for humanity to ever reach that point. And now, within the past 100 years, with the advent of radio, film, television, and the internet, story has proliferated to such amazing exponential explosions.

As a storyteller myself, I sometimes reflect on this great historical canvass of story, and wonder … why? Why do we need story so much, and why do we continually create so much of it? As a course for survival from the very beginning, we have always needed food, water, and shelter. But right up there with needing other humans, whether it be by clan, tribe, village, or society, story has always been with us. It seems to be a very primal need that has evolved in sophistication as we have. And I would imagine it has been paramount in the survival of our species, because of the lessons we can learn from stories.

At a very basic level stories tell our history, our conscience, and can be lessons, parables, journeys, hopes or explanations from many different perspectives. But is it also not a way for us to communicate with each other, to keep our connections to each other, to remind us how human we are, and how difficult being here can be, with all our comedies, tragedies and dramas that make us who we are, and remind us we are not alone in this journey?

Maybe all those things, but I think there may be even more to it than that. Especially in looking at how our modern world works, and to see how any more stories we consume, compared to say, a hundred years ago. Or even a thousand years ago, when there were so few written stories and most of us were not literate anyway. Why have we all increased our appetites so much over this long span of history? Do we need it more now than we ever have, and if so, why? Or have we just become so very gluttonous with our story ingestion? And the need seems to be not just in the consumption, but in the creation of story.  For are we not all storytellers too? And maybe we all just need more escapes than ever before?

I have actually been thinking about this in one way or another for a while. Even since I was a child and used to hoard comic books, never getting enough to read. I remember wondering then why I would hunger for another story almost as much as I would for dinner, or if I was really thirsty. I certainly can’t say that I have a definitive answer, but I think I have one possible scenario that may be worth something. At least to me.

I think it’s obvious to say we need meaning to our lives, to our own personal existence. We want to understand ourselves and our lives. We want clarity. We want a beginning, middle and ending to things, to understand, to comprehend, for our lives to have this meaning. Or else, what is the point to being here? A sense of story helps provide that for us. And we seek it and search it out. In a way that seems almost a spiritual mission. Although some of us would not think about it as such.

One of the devices a writer uses when writing a story, is asking, ‘What happens next?’ Meaning when creating a story, there is always a carrot the writer sticks out to readers to entice them to continue to read. To keep them engaged to continue the story, on and on.  As if there can be no ending. As our lives here eventually do …

Here is another perspective of looking at this same point. Some believe that our life here is an illusion, and that we pass over to reality on its conclusion. So here we are creating more illusion (stories) within this very illusion. Maybe, as if an illusion within an illusion will help us find some reality? At some level, is that what we are actually doing? Trying to discover (or write) the story of own existence? Each unique with our own unique stories, are we trying to become real in an illusionary world? Are we trying to find ourselves, create ourselves, or extend ourselves?

I have heard it said that imagination is the bridge between this world and the next. By engaging our imagination with storytelling and story consuming, are we strengthening that bridge, and attempting to breathe life into our own immortality?

Or in a much darker version, is this modern day story consumption burying us, and actually making it harder for us to do that, and that is why we may be having more difficulty than ever to find ourselves, because the din is so loud we only hear it, and not our own inner selves anymore?

So like a drunk who drinks himself to a stupor and then passes out, are we convoluting ourselves with story the same way, so that we can never really know who we truly are? Only what self-serving, addicting, profiteering, made up fictions tell us we are?

Is it possible that all this story freedom actually enslaves us? An ongoing fabrication that actually takes us farther from who we really are? Has all this story consumption increased our sense of purpose, our wisdom, or our happiness? Have we deluded ourselves?

I think each of us must consider the dark as well as the light, in objectively considering the personal effects all this story consumption does to us all.

As a filmmaker (and storyteller) myself, I know what I am trying to accomplish; enlightenment, education, entertainment; in that order. And to open up the imagination … to many possibilities.

We attempted to do that with our last film “Dreams Awake” and continue to do that. We have a new film, “One Hand Clapping,” which we are currently developing and hope to put into production next year.

In the end I feel story becomes real through you, the reader, the listener, the viewer, because it becomes something new, unique, and original in your own mind. How you perceive it, process it, reflect upon it, use it, and even communicate it to others is only how you can do it. No one else. Ever. That is how the best stories really live on and on and on …

As a storyteller I get to create a story for you. You, who is the only one who can truly breathe life into it. You, who can get something out of it for you, in a way only you can do. For you are the true story creators. And that is very cool. And I am happy to be at your disposal, and your co-creator.

 JAD

(You can continue this blog entry on my other blog — http://themysticcowboy.com/2013/01/19/double-edged-storytelling)

“One Hand Clapping” Website –http://www.onehandclappingmovie.com

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