Tonight, I am wondering about the impact a story can have on our life!
On our world view.
How much they can or cannot shape the eyes we watch through.
What we take from them wherever we go next.
This keeps bothering, because recently I struggled more than before with representations I saw consumed so easily by the world around me. I mostly mean the representation of certain groups of people here, of course. It disturbed me deeply and I felt the need to do something! But, as cooperative and maybe even naive as I tend to be, I want to get my path of argumentation clear before I get started! So, although there are very specific things I urge to discuss on my blog, I have to first answer some question and clear up some concepts in my mind!
How do stories influence us?
Or better, the perspectives stories offer.
How can I possibly find an answer? I cannot just meet people who have never had contact with any narrated, created or symbolized version of reality. Already hundred thousands of years ago, our ancestors produced images of their reality. I think of cave paintings, or of early sculptures. And those traces we still find of those times today are only what is left of them. They easily were part of a story, of a poem, or whatever else.
So, not even traveling back in time would allow me to talk to a human mind that has never been in touch with artistic and made up versions of aspects of our reality, of life, of emotions, dreams or whatever else can be told and shown around a bonfire.
For the sake of my readers I will just refer to those as stories in this blog post, meaning to include all different kinds of media and form they come in.
And I have found my first problem with this question.
It is hard to tell what impact stories have on our mind, because we simply don’t find humans that have never been in touch with them the one or the other way.
But why am I even asking that question? Why would I as a writer even want to think about a world without stories?
The answer could be that in understanding which effect stories actually have on us, I can determine certain functions they must not have, or that can even do harm.
Can stories do harm?
And if so, what kind?
First of all, let me assure you that this will not be against stories in general. I will not turn into the moustache-wearing great uncle telling you your favourite book is “just a story” and to just not “take it seriously”.
That is how they work.
We connect to them. We see things from above, or any other new perspective. We recognize things we have been through, and sometimes even find answers to problems we carry. We may identify with a character for a very personal reason. Because they found a solution we could not have seen, or because they manage to keep energy we seek (and many more possible reasons could be added!). Or, because we recognize their flaws. Maybe even those we share, or at least fear to.
But are stories supposed to do this?
What function does a story have?
Are there even those it must not ever fulfill?
When I was in university, I of course at some point ended up with the old Greek philosophers, and I remember discussing Plato’s version of art (or any creative product being consumed), and how they were viewed critically and at risk of luring one away from the true essence of the things in the world.
Can a story make me believe in wrong things?
Would I believe I can fly, because a character in a story is so similar to me can?
Probably not.
Would I invest lesser time in learning how to fly, when a story catches too much of my attention?
This may me a bit more likely. Although it could work the other way around. Just think of people studying engineering because of watching Star Trek. Here again, identification can be inspiration for our lives.
If you look into myths and legends, and thus into old tales that have been retold for countless generations, people tend to imagine them as explanations from the world around, and now and then there are cut down to the way people once explained why the world exists, before there was science. I work at a museum about archaeology, and when I ask my kids what they think of cave paintings, at least one always suggests that these were made to teach how to hunt (which is probably not wrong). I am careful with seeing ancient stories just as a substitution for science. This would make them useless today, and we still find quotes, characters and motives in them we like.
They can tell us something about our world.
I could go on with these examples forever.
Especially in recent years, new media had to be discussed, since some people were worried that violent video games made the players violent in real life, which eventually leads back to the question of how much and what I take into my real life out of a story.
As you may have realized, I was not able to give an answer to this question.
I gave a perspective on it and explained some point of views I have come across so far.
Maybe, it is a question that cannot simply be answered.
Maybe it is a very unique and individual process we go through when consuming stories.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that some of them tend to survive through the century. They are being retold, other stories refer to them or are inspired by them. Or even things people do in real life. Stories can make us feel emotions, they can make us think and wonder!
So, we have to take care of what we put into them, right?
We have to think if the version of the world we convey with a story is one we really want to have out there in the world!
This does not mean that all stories have to show the bright side of life, or have to have happy ending.
The rough, and dark, cruel and sad part of life can and has to be shown as well!
But what do I actually tell about someone?
How do I picture someone in a storx?
What kind of assumptions or connections do I allow?
Because, considering that every story has the potential of being referred to, of being retold, and remembered in many other ways, we have to think about what we really wish to leave behind.
What kind of ideas do we want to leave behind?
Let’s get more specific here.
How do we want childless women to be imagined?
Heartless?
Selfish?
Or maybe, creative and full of own endevaours?
How do we want to picture trans people?
As liers?
As those that trick others, or even threaten their safety?
Or as people just like you and me that are on their own journey?
What do we want to tell about religious or ethnic minorities? About people with disabilities and illnesses?
And so on, and on, and on.
My point is that is matters how we picture, imagine, judge the world around us in our stories.
Stories stick with us. We find certain kinds of truths in them. We let them close to our hearts. Other stories may be inspired by them, or directly refer to them. They may be retold in another medium at some point in the future.
They matter.
And we have to treat each other with respect in these stories.
Especially those groups of people that have been or still are under threat of their safety.
Stories must not make it harder for them, especially.
I will not get more specific on this here.
I have a few more posts in the making, in which I will take a look at the stories I once liked. (Yes, I am a former and over the years brutally shocked and disappointed Harry-Potter-Fan.)
For now, I think I have found my words to explain why it matters how our stories view the world.
Because stories get to us and stick with us.
Mistress witch writes 