"I find myself somewhat troubled to be living in a society that seems to have an obsessive need to be told stories. I'm suspicious of the need, and often suspicious about the motives of narrators. I worry about 'the story' as a form of distraction.
Poetry has instructed me in joy, in lyric revelation, and it's in those realms that I tend to place my trust. Not necessarily even in the reverie of language, but the places you get to beyond language. Viewed from this vantage point, there appears to be something fake and illusory about narrative. I often admire the skill of narrators while not believing in their mission."
- Ken Norris, Writing a Long Poem for a Very Long Time, Poetics.ca #6
1 comment:
Intriguing. If he means "stories" in the sense of parables, or lectures — tales in which you're expected to discover an intended meaning — then I'm inclined to agree. Perhaps his statement that he doesn't believe in "their mission" bears out that interpretation. However, for me (and that qualification's important), "story" covers a much wider field. I'm not really a big fan of literary tags, but "narrative" has connotations I prefer, perhaps because it's less constrained.
If he'd stuck to "story" and "storyteller" rather than introducing (and perhaps synonymising) those with "narrative" and "narrator", I'd probably not have paid as much attention.
Post a Comment