Tough gig for anyone, let alone a 9-year-old. Storytelling is inherently emotive, and humans are rather emotional creatures. Since our ancestors first stood around tribal fires relaying tales of wild bison, through to the modern day telling of fairy tales to children and binge-watching Netflix dramas, humans have used stories to share experiences and values, bonding us to others.
Stories are the anecdotes we tell our friends, the books we read, the music we listen to and the films we watch. But why do we actually tell stories? Our mission here is pretty simple. In order to survive and thrive, we need to pass on the strategies and tactics that are necessary for us to exist through to following generations.
Stories become the vital codes of survival. Her story of intergenerational trauma, migration and coming-of-age as a young gay woman is an extraordinary example of storytelling, highlighting survival. Storytelling is what makes us human. Stories are one of the few things that separate us from animals, they are central to the human experience. Not all stories are verbal, mind you.
Some of the greatest stories are told by allowing our imaginations to simply run wild. The listener isn't a passive person just sitting there; they're creating along with the teller. Catherine Wright — a storyteller, multidisciplinary artist, and the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival — says she enjoys the relationship between storytellers and their listeners.
The communal experience of storytelling can extend beyond the event and the story itself — because the empathy that stories create carries over into the community as a whole. While we don't all share the same experiences, we do all share a similar array of emotions, fears and hopes. When those emotions, fears and hopes are presented to us as part of a personal story, a folktale or a myth, they create a connection between the listener, the characters and the teller.
That connection, the one that recognizes the ways that we're the same and promotes understanding despite our differences, is the foundation of building stronger communities.
King-Campbell agrees. I have focused my whole professional life around the concepts that connecting to other people makes the world better. Whether sharing a story involves conveying important information, creating a communal experience, or building community connections, a story's most important function is to remind us that we are not alone in the world.
Stories of other people's experiences, real or fictional, help us to see that everyone has feelings, fear and hopes — and that everyone is trying to do their best to make their way in the world. Despite our differences, the connections we make through stories give us the great relief of saying, "Oh, I'm not the only one who feels this way. While not everyone is comfortable taking to the stage and telling their tale into the microphone, we all have opportunities to share stories with the world.
Perhaps your personal stories are too tender to share but there may be a myth, folktale, or a legend that lets you get close enough to connect with someone else. If you find yourself unable to understand someone else's motivations, perhaps listening to their story — or the stories of people like them — can help. You can harness the power of story to help you build connections and understanding between yourself and others and be part of strengthening our communities.
Even so, Smith decided he would be the man to crack the code. Propelled by his interests in Assyriology and biblical archaeology, Smith, who was employed as a classifier by the British Museum, taught himself Sumerian and literary Akkadian. The story on the 11th tablet that Smith had cracked was in fact the oldest story in the world: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh has all the trappings of a modern story: a protagonist who goes on an arduous journey, a romance with a seductive woman, a redemptive arc, and a full cast of supporting characters.
Humans have been telling stories for thousands of years, sharing them orally even before the invention of writing. Stories can be a way for humans to feel that we have control over the world. They allow people to see patterns where there is chaos, meaning where there is randomness.
Humans are inclined to see narratives where there are none because it can afford meaning to our lives—a form of existential problem-solving. In a study conducted by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel at Smith College, 34 college students were shown a short film in which two triangles and a circle moved across the screen and a rectangle remained stationary on one side of the screen.
This can affirm our own beliefs and perceptions, but more often, it challenges them. Interestingly, the more absorbed in the story the readers were, the more empathetic they behaved in real life.
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