We're Storytellers
Fiction: a mix of fact and fancy that is humanity's world-conquering superpower!
In an earlier post, I mentioned our Cognitive Revolution and the resulting invention of fictions such as “nation” and “justice”. This power to create new worlds from our imagination arguably were key to our overrunning every livable ecological niche on Earth. Fictions unite us, comfort us, instruct us, amuse us, and bring us joy. We can live hundreds of other lives through fiction.
From campfire tall tales to billion-dollar movie epics, they have in common the story and the storyteller. I have long been fascinated by both. As with music, another lifelong fascination beyond my full grasp, I don’t have the knack of writing fiction. I’m a bit in awe of those who can weave those musical and story fabrics.
Storytelling seems unique to humans. Some animals communicate, but I don’t know they ever indulge in fiction. For one thing, our ability to use language allows us to create and tell complex stories. Language enables a complex imagination.
I’m intrigued by the continuum of storytelling modes. It’s not linear, but roughly speaking, books lie at one end, movies at the other. Plays and television lie somewhere between. I think this continuum is defined — in part — by how the audience experiences the work.
Here are some brief notes about how we experience these different art forms:
Books
The story in a book occurs as we read. If we stop to reflect or take a break, the story stops and waits. We can jump back to re-read or jump forward to find out what happened. With books, readers control how the story unfolds to them.
A wonderful aspect of this is being able to savor especially rich parts, wallow in the joy of text. As with all art, books have content and style. Sometimes the writing style of a book, regardless of plot or characters, demands slow savoring.
Books usually have no visual content. Some may have illustrations or chapter pictures. Outside of these — which deeply informed our vision of Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland — the visual content is left entirely to the imagination of the reader.
So, the stories in books take place entirely in the reader’s mind, imagination is a key component, and the reader controls text navigation. This means readers bring a great deal of themselves to the table.
Plays
Plays occur in real-time; once they begin, they proceed until the end. There may be brief pauses for scene changes, and occasionally an intermission, but to a great extent, plays occur in real-time, just like life.
Plays differ from life because visual elements are simulated. Scenery, costumes and props can be presented in various ways, from realistic to abstract. Some plays take place on empty stages, with no costumes and with imaginary props. Other plays strive for the greatest realism possible. And while props and costumes can be entirely authentic (a real umbrella, a real shirt), the scenery is usually simulated.
With plays we get into performance art — how the story is staged and enacted. We’ve jumped from reading text to performance of text. Of particular note, music and sound effects become a part of the story. Music, especially, has evocative powers that add emotion and texture to a story.
Audience members see the play from a single viewpoint determined by their seat. Yet, the play itself is necessarily designed to be viewed from all seats, so it must make sense from a variety of angles. Ideally, the perception of the play should be the same from any seat. One thing all viewpoints share, though, is distance and continuity. Even front row seats are many feet, if not yards, from the players.
Within the limitation of the view from your seat, you can look anywhere in the scene you like. Nothing controls where you gaze. Not in the literal way that cameras do. (Sometimes stage plays do use lighting or other tricks to try to direct your attention.)
Plays require imagination from the audience, but not as much as books, because some visuals are provided. They can be merely suggestive or as realistic as circumstances permit. During a play, the viewer can’t navigate the text, they can only sit back for the ride. Of particular note, characters are brought to life. They are enacted by real humans.
Television
Firstly, I think it’s helpful to draw a distinction between cinematic TV and studio TV. The former are produced with cinema techniques and are rightfully considered “movies”. Another wrinkle is theatrical release movies shown on TV. They were made as cinema and presented as cinema, so they are obviously not TV. There is also the matter of commercial breaks, but that is gist for another mill.
The addition of one or more cameras to storytelling makes a significant difference in how a story works. Just as a photograph freezes a moment of time and place, a cinegraph freezes the telling of a story. Once frozen, the experience can be repeated endlessly and without variation. Compare this to a play which is slightly different each time performed.
I see at least two hugely significant things about the addition of cameras. Firstly, gaze is now fully controlled by the artist. Secondly, viewpoint can be instantly changed by a cut. Therefore, part of the creative act here is what the artist looks at, how closely they look at it, and for how long.
Studio TV shows are shot as if they were small plays and may even include live audiences. Generally single scenes run in real-time with multiple cameras running in synch. In some cases, the show is “cut” live. The director switches among the cameras during the performance. In other cases, the synchronized footage is cut later with greater deliberation and care.
The studio audience, if present, is not the real audience of a TV show. The audience is there, sometimes for publicity, but mainly to provide a live feel. Comedies in particular benefit when seen with a crowd; laughter is contagious. (Even with a live audience, studio shows often have laugh tracks to enhance the live feel.)
The real audience is the viewer, and for the viewer, the viewpoint is fully controlled. The camera’s gaze is under the director’s control, as is which camera is live at any moment. And while the studio audience may endure several minutes between scene changes, for the viewer, the change is instant.
Viewpoint and gaze aren’t the only factors under a director’s control in TV. Most TV shows strive to make the scenery, costumes and props as realistic as possible. In fact, generally in TV, lack of realism is considered avant-garde. In terms of its visual aspect, TV doesn’t leave much to the viewer’s imagination.
So, TV shows are another jump in making the story external to the audience, making the audience more passive. The show provides typically realistic visuals and controls the viewpoint. With recorded or streamed media, rewind, slo-mo, and freeze-frame put some timeline control back into the viewer’s hands, but a TV show is a frozen story to which the viewer contributes little.
These combine to give TV great power to affect our emotions and, even more dangerously, our minds. Music and sound effects heighten that power, giving TV the ability to create engaging new realities.
Movies
The ability of the storyteller to control all elements of the story is never greater than with cinema. Film makers can spend months, even years, crafting a film that lasts 90 minutes. Usually at least four to six times as much film is shot as is seen, which gives directors lots of power to shape the story after it has been shot. Music, scenery, props, and effects are all at their fullest expression in film.
The combination of the full control of cinema along with the common experience of viewing it quietly on a big screen a dark room makes film the most powerfully immersive and realistic of storytelling techniques. The mobility of the motion picture camera, the variety of lenses, and the sensitivity of film all make the cinema camera one of the most powerful storytelling devices ever invented.
The way movies are edited makes them resemble our dreams. Timelines can jump from past to future. Viewpoints and scenes shift suddenly. Scenes can begin in the middle. Reality becomes malleable. Narrative can be jumbled, even chaotic.
Movies require even less imagination than television. They spool into our minds as we passively receive them. From books to movies, we bring less and less to the table.
And something should be said about how realistic live-action movies can be. When we talk about violence in media, we should include in this an understanding of visceral impact movies can have because of their immersive realism. Books, comics, even animated stories do not have the mental impact that live-action movies do.
Graphic Novels and Animation
Graphic Novels make an interesting addition to the continuum. They are books in physical form and share the savorable aspects of books. Yet they are illustrated works, which pushes them up the continuum. Less imagination is required.
Their visuals can be lifelike or suggestive, but each frame is a snapshot of sorts. On the other hand, the viewpoint and gaze are under the artist’s control as much as in cinema. They apparently span the continuum from books to movies, having some aspects of both.
Animated comics fall somewhere between graphic novels and movies (or TV). That they are animated obviously makes them less real, so violent animated stories don’t have the compelling impact that live-action does. They are “cartoon violence” (a tradition as old as cartoons) compared to visions of the real thing in live-action.
Poetry
Poetry is an almost dream-like mode that may not (often does not) tell a story, per se. To me, poetry is more akin to painting or sculpture. Or music. Poetry can be thought of as a spoken song.
As a literary form, it requires the most imagination from the reader (and the poet). The reader, I think, brings even more to poetry than to a written story. If I had to place it on the story continuum, I would place them beyond books, almost into the dream world.
There is an inkblot quality to all art, especially poetry. We always see ourselves reflected, and the more nebulous the “text” the more we bring to it. Art criticism famously often says more about the Critic than the artist.
Campfire Stories
Some think sitting around the fire telling tall tales (and making jokes), is where it all began. Language may have been driven, at least in part, by our need to tell stories (and jokes — humor is thought to be ancient in us). Stories go far beyond the simple needs of communication, where the good game is, where fresh water can be found. Stories are one of our most quintessential defining human characteristics. And I think they are one of the best parts of being human.
What are your thoughts on the kinds of stories there are? No doubt I missed some important ones. Do you have a favorite storytelling mode? What attracts you to stories?