Stories

How do we tell a good story from a bad one? Back in the days when I was a graduate student, earning a PhD in Literature, we had standards, criteria, guide posts, concrete examples that went in and out of fashion. We talked about stories that had depth and supported multiple re-readings versus thinner ones. We got excited by originality, alternate views, voices that re-arranged how we experienced the world. Good stories were generous but not easy; rich but not pointlessly oblique. I loved writers who mined experience, explored deeply and reported back.

We need storytellers who help us to a wider vision, a deeper compassion, a more humane humanness, a not-just-human-centred view of the world. and we need to pay attention when stories are deployed in superficial and manipulative ways. We feel it, don’t we? A race report that ignores lived experience; a politician who papers over social cracks with union jacks; a business tycoon touting national sovereignty from his tax haven. If we were to subject out national storytellers to a spot of literary criticism, we might ask:

• Is this a reliable narrator?

• What are the underlying motivations behind this character’s words?

• Who is the intended audience?

• What blind spots does this character have?

• What is the general tone and its intended or unintended impact?

• How much do we see as a reader/listener that the character fails to see, and why does this matter?

And we might ask broader questions too:

• What genre are we engaged in? Is it speculative fiction, science-fiction, autobiography, fantasy, or drama?

• Where does this story fall within a larger historical context?

• What sources do the characters rely on when claiming to speak truth?