Yesterday, Jack Dueck came to visit out class. Dueck is a storyteller and writer who has had work published in both secular and religious publications. (You can read one of his stories from the Mennonite Brethern Herald here http://www.mbconf.ca/home/products_and_services/resources/publications/mb_herald/mb_herald_october_2009/features/come_come_and_see/). He told us many stories from his past and from the past of his people, diverging on delightful tangents and enthralling us with bits of wisdom along the way. His stories were those of redemption, forgiveness, grace, and yes, borsch. As a class, we've learned and discussed about many of these topics already through literature. I have to admit though, although the poems and stories we've read have been pretty good, none of them affected me quite as powerfully as Dueck's tales did. I don't want to discredit any of the authors; rather, I think my enjoyment is almost solely because the stories were told out loud this time, by a real person that I was watching.
What is it about a good spoken story? Ancient Greeks and Hebrews told them 'till their faces were blue, boy scouts have billions of ghost stories up their sleeves for the campfire, and grandparents (well, at least mine) can sit and tell stories about missionary trips to India, food, people, or the land for hours and hours. And we, as a people, are still telling stories. Maybe our stories are casually laughed about or thought on by close friends and family, or perhaps the venue is a bit bigger--a festival, for example (http://www.storytellingcenter.net/festival/). If the audience is in the few thousands or just one, I don't think the oral story is going anywhere anytime soon.
I'm still not sure why this is so, or why the spoken word has so much power. Perhaps it is because more senses are engaged when listening than when one reads. After all, you are using both your ears to hear and your eyes to pick up body language. I know I find it much easier to cry if someone else is crying, or laugh when I see someone else laughing. Maybe it's because vocalization seems to be one of out most common ways of obtaining information, so it's just what we're used to. Or perhaps hearing a story is comforting, as it maybe reminds us of the many times Grandpa pulled us on his knee, or how Uncle Tim tells us about the two foot long pike he caught every Thanksgiving. Maybe it's just easier to stay focused listening, or maybe the preference is genetic.
With all of that said, I won't give up reading anytime soon. I still love the feel of pages and a cover. Place a book in front of me, and I'll be happily satisfied for a few hours, more or less depending on the subject. Put me in the presence of a good storyteller however, and as long as they're around, all hope for my productivity flies out the window. Go figure. Nonetheless, I'm almost guaranteed to leave smiling, just as I did yesterday.
I agree that there's something really cool about oral storytelling. Reading books aloud is also one of my favorite things to do. We talk about tone in literature, but with both of these vocal methods of storytelling, you can actually hear a person's tone of voice as they tell the story. Hearing stories aloud allows me to connect more with the storyteller. It's also a lot more informal and less nit-picky/ judgmental than writing.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it's also important to record the stories in writing, as Jack Dueck was saying, even if they are primarily told orally. For my SST final project I collected a bunch of previously unrecorded oral stories from the indigenous group I was living with and recorded them in graphic-novel format. It seems like a lot of ethnic minorities have primarily oral stories. Is this true of Mennonites? Do Mennonites have more oral than written stories and why would this be?
Personally I disagree in some ways. I would rather read a story than have it read to me because I keep my focus better. When someone reads a story to me I tend to miss things like details and find myself confused. It is also easy for my mind to wander when someone is reading a story. I like to have the words in front of me so that they sink in and I don't miss anything. I love reading a book out loud when I am by myself though.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, however, the thing I like about an author reading their story or especially their poem is that you hear the tone they put with the work which is sometimes lost when the work is solely on the page and not read aloud.
I totally agree. Dueck left a big impression on me as well, and it was definitely because of his manner of storytelling. I was surprised at my reaction, because I'm such a fan of what can be done with words on the page that can rarely be done orally. However, I don't think I'd have had the same reaction to Dueck's stories had he not been telling them aloud. The tangents he went off on were not only extremely informative but entertaining as well, and really helped flesh out the stories for me.
ReplyDeleteI think there's definitely a time for both oral and written stories, and both have their obvious advantages and disadvantages. Like Annie says, if we had just read Jack's stories in class instead of reading them, the stories would have taken on a completley different shape. They wouldn't have had that emotional side or held the slow pace that Jack read them (I'm not sure why he was prone to taking large pauses when reading, but for some reason I really enjoyed that.)
ReplyDeleteI wonder too, Sarah, if there are more oral than written stories in the Mennonites. I know Kasdorf's "Writing Like a Mennonite" wrote that for awhile, Mennonite literature was not published and in essence randomly disappeared. Now it's slowly coming back, but I can imagine that for awhile, oral stories were what thrived.