This is the first post in a new occasional series in which I attempt to narrate the story of the story. From its inception around the camp fire in prehistory, to the implications of storytelling in cyberspace, the series will cover the lot.
In doing so, I hope to show that storytelling is at the heart of what it is to be human. For as the series will show, the story is at the heart of our aspirations and meaning, and as such the story has been the central element of our history.
IN THE FLICKERING LIGHT
The story is at the heart of who we are as individuals, as societies, as cultures. Above all other areas of life our ability to tell stories divorces us from the animal kingdom. At the heart of the story is human imagination and the ability to think in the abstract, and it is this ability that allowed us to rise from the animal in the first place.
When did the story begin? From studies of primitive tribes today we can argue that the story began with bluster around the ancient camp fire. Someone would do something brave or ingenious and men of imagination would sit there, the flickering flames upon their face, and embellish the exploit.
The purpose of such stories was clear. In one sense, it entertained, drawing back the dark to deliver a fantasy that enriched life. One obvious upshot of such tales was that it would imbue others to follow the path of the hero, thus making the tribe more thrusting, ingenious and dynamic. But there would be other purposes involved in the story.
THE STORY OF MORALITY
One obvious purpose was the taboo. Man, the individual, has wants and desires. But in order for a society to exist, such desires must be suppressed. A society where everyone got what they wanted would be chaotic and incapable of advancement. Hence, a code of ethics must come into being. And there is no better form of moral expression than the story, where the transgressor gets his just desserts.
The obvious social reaction to such morality tales would be the rise of superstition. A story births an idea, and to transgress soon brings a general punishment. And you can guarantee that that punishment will be as the story advised. But in the inevitability of cause following an effect, the story takes on a life of its own. But what form of life is this thing called fiction?
TOWARDS THE SPIRITUAL
A superstitious society is a spiritual society, and as the story grew, so would the idea that it represents some supernatural world. After all, haven’t the heroes of the story taken on almost supernatural status? And it is in this dimension that the earliest stories went on to define, more than anything else, what society rose to become.
The first known religions were those related to animism. In its basic form, animism was the belief that parallel to the physical world was a supernatural world of spirit. Hence, everything that was physical – the tree, the river, the storm – had a spirit equivalent. The ability of the human mind to dream could have laid the basis for such a perceived phenomenon, but without a doubt it was the story that embellished and defined the idea. It was in the story that a reason for disaster was put down to a god, angered by human behaviour.
THE MEANING OF PLACE
This was the birth of religion proper. Centred around man’s relationship to nature, the story anchored human society into a moral code, based around place and environment. It was the beginning of culture, giving man and his society a meaning above mere survival.
And in defining culture, it was the story that propelled man into history, giving him the ingenuity and the reason to strive. And in gratitude, the storyteller was destined to become the shaman, or priest, building the bridge between the physical and the spirit.
In the next post I will advance this idea, narrating how the story evolved into the great mythologies of the Classical world.
© Anthony North, May 2007
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