Why write/tell stories is still relevant?
- Leo Marcorin
- Oct 29, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 7, 2023
I'm always wondering about things. In my thoughts, this question always arises: "Is telling stories still relevant?" This is a strange reflection coming from a writer, but kind of relevant these days.
Recently, art has become "content", a compact piece of culture packaged and ready to hit the most demographic, with a life cycle of 8 seconds. Never in history have so many stories been produced. For instance, in 1 year, we publish:
4 million+ books;
550+ TV series (or Streaming), including new seasons;
740+ movies;
The 21st century is a personal culture paradise, where every possible art content is mass-produced daily for all kinds of public. One doesn't fit the culture - The culture fits the One.
Yet, how many of these numbers are culturally relevant? This question is polemic since each one has an opinion about what matters or not. But, talking about my work, what am I but a single drop on an infinite ocean? How can my stories be relevant?
And if it is all a paradise, why does it feel weird?
Since the Cognitive Revolution 70.000 years ago, our species has had the need to create Fiction. In fact, our ability to develop and believe in Fiction has become a survivor factor – The most important tool that allowed small groups of Homo Sapiens to become large communities, so much large that we started to mount one another and finally reached the top of the food chain. Yeah!
Different than any other animal on the planet, we are the only ones who can co-exist in big groups without knowing one another. If confronted by an outsider, any other species would recur to violence. On the other hand, humans meet in theaters, cinemas, and football matches without the biological need for mayhem (well... most of the time). All thanks to the Collective Fiction.
An individual partakes and even actively wishes to be in an ensemble of completely unknown people just by believing in a common Collective Fiction. This applies to religion, sports, politics, or any form of community. The war we see today, like in Ukraine, where a small group of individuals believe in the illusion that the Ukraine state never existed, happens just because of a very specific Collective Fiction. Even after being confronted with strong evidence, repeatable evidence, it is really hard to discredit a collective illusion. The more people believe in it, the stronger it gets.
People need Fiction to survive. Our beliefs in the intangible are the very fabric that keeps the order of the New World in balance: Government, Nations, Economics, Religions, Horoscope, Piece, Liberty, etc.
So, in short, believing in Fiction and stories is necessary for survival. As our species evolved, so did our stories.
Before writing was invented by the Summers almost five millennia ago, people shared their stories orally. Actually, the oral tradition dominated most of the stories sharing until the press was created in the 14th century. Even though great ancient literature existed, like the Gilgamesh epic by the Mesopotamians or the Iliad by Homer, they were a register of the oral tradition, the same way one documents a property. In Rome, the art of Speak and Poetry were extraordinarily important. Due to its high costs and inaccessibility, most of the literary traditions in the period were exclusive to the wealthy or the church.
After Gutenberg's press in 1430, the literary tradition expanded - It was a game-changer. The 15th century brought the era of great writers who could then share their work on a large scale at an accessible price. Alphabetization and access to information enabled intellectual movements like the Enlightenment, besides artistic like Classic and Romanticism.
The plastic arts are also a medium for stories (not only for religious or political propaganda - See artists like Caravaggio or Théodore Géricault). Still, the story relied on the artist's artistry and the viewer's ability to interpret. Music was not far behind, telling about secular subjects (Songs, Dances), religion (Chants, Cantatas), or epics (Operas and Symphonies).
The next big revolution was the creation of Photography and the Grammophon at the end of the 18th century. The plastic arts and music could then be recorded and distributed. Soon came the cinema, and that changed the way stories were told. The literary tradition was still relevant but competing with different mediums. After 1910 came the Radio, broadcasting news about the war but also music, novelas, crime, and horror stories. Then, in 1930, the TV arrived, and we broadcasted more news about the war, movies, and new forms of TV dramas. The last big revolution happened in the 90s, with the Internet. By the 2000s came streaming, and today we live in the era of Content.
The media and the stories also evolved, sometimes repeating and reinventing. Come sun or rain, burn bridges and bomb cities... Fiction was always there, teaching and moving us. As long as humans exist, stories will always be there, written, painted, or spoken. Fiction is an evolutive factor as relevant today as it was with our ancestors 70.000 years ago.
So, why does it feel weird?
Please don't take offense, for this is my empirical opinion. It seems that the more we produce, the less we focus on the things that matter to us at our age. Think about the great manuscripts with strong political tones, important for the era in which they were written. Think about the Angst of the writers who watched the Technological revolution in the early 18th century. How did their work reflect on their world? Think about science fiction, the way Jules Verne saw the positive progress of 18th-century tech, dreaming about the unimaginable, all thanks to science. In the early 19th century, the same technological advancements that made Jules Verne dream about traveling the world in 80 days or hitting the bottom of the ocean turned against mankind as a mass control tool. It was the regime era: 1984's George Orwell used technology to control even the thoughts of the masses, while Aldous Huxley's dystopia in Brave New World turned us into alienated cogs in a technologically advanced machine.
Why were both visions about technology relevant to their period? Jules Verne taught us to believe in science so we could live in a world of limitless possibilities. Whiles George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, both writers who were active during the two great wars, taught us never to trust the authority that controlled such technology. Both versions are relevant to their historical moment. Hence, for me, good Content must reverberate with the Angst of our period.
What about today?
Anyone can write a book today (even me!). Everything is easy. We have computers, google, Wikipedia, SparkNotes, AI grammar editors, freelancers, free publishing services, book standards, templates, Software, blah, blah, and blah. I want it all, and I want it now? Well, now you have it. We live in the Content Paradise, but how much of the huge numbers we publish today reverberate with the Angst of our period?
Don't take me wrong. Many excellent writers today, maybe even more than 200 years ago, tackle our social and political issues. Still, in our lifestyle of destructive consumerism, of the "Feel Good" no matter what, who wants to read about problems?
Empathy is the keyword here. Still, how could a very empathic person, given the mere 24 hours we have to survive our days, sit and read every possible book about racism?
Which family men would use the mere two or three hours available from a busy day to learn and understand the perils of a queer teenager trying to survive puberty?
Which businesswomen would lose more than 3 seconds-news from DW or BBC on Instagram to learn/read about the economics of the Ukraine war or the latest scientific findings on climate change?
Isn't entertainment's (and yes, my Friend, most stories have become the "Entertaining" market, not education) sole purpose of relieving our stress?
Suppose I want to inform myself in the shortest time possible. Isn't it easier to simply read a meme that my wise and educated uncle sent me on Whatsapp? ;)
We made everything simple to increase productivity, and now we can't handle wisely the amount we've produced. So, we rely on large corporations like Google, Meta, Netflix, Disney, and Amazon to curate the things we should listen to, watch and read. Luckily, they are unbiased and have only our best interests at heart. Right?
Truth be told, people will consume what's sellable. It takes a lot of luck or having the right blood to be found by script-hunters, more luck yet not to have your work butchered to fit the profit vision of the entertainment business. Quantity has become a KPI, a success measure, not quality or relevance. How many more Start Wars movies, reboots, or spinoffs do we need?
On the other hand, how many writers are entering the zeitgeist thanks to fanatics and extremists trying to bane "bad" books from schools and libraries? Deep in the sea of futility lies an incredible treasure, something the enemies of progress know pretty well. Like the Nazis, extremists are still burning books today, systematically and desperately trying to limit the liberty of expression of minorities. Any text, book, tv series, or news outlet that is contrary to the fake news narrative has become a piece of resistance. Words and knowledge are still power.
I recommend the following Wisecrack video on the subject: https://youtu.be/MYnpMx12S6Q
In conclusion, is it still worth telling stories? YES!!!
Mainly about relevant subjects of our time.
That is what moves me.
Obviously, I am no great writer, but in the House of Dust, I wrote two big metaphors, first about dealing with loss and another about Climate Change. The story revolves around these two subjects.
Don't tell stories just because it's cool. Write something that makes sense, that reverberates. Use your experiences and pain not as a tool to reach a large number of readers but because it matters.
In the end, all that matters is to tell a good story.
That's why I decided to write this article (and record a series on YouTube) on how to make stories. If you want to know more about it, stay tuned.
What do you need to write stories?
A biological need to tell stories (Like our ancestors);
Patience;
Be a sponge and absorb all the experiences around you;
Discipline (Just a little bit...);
And to be kind to yourself.
I will share my experience with you in the next posts, the tools I developed to write the House of Dust, and all you need to know if you are interested in telling stories.
Last words: This series is focused on Fiction. I will explain form, media, genre, how to get ideas and transform them in text, planning a story (Characters, dialogs, world), and how to start, develop and end.
Sources:
NOAH HARARI, YUVAL. Sapiens
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