A Good Story and Ira Glass
A good story can’t wait to be told. Sometimes it has to be found, worked on, and whittled into a shape that can be digested by an audience. Some stories we have been telling for thousands of years and at the hands of a master craftsman it is received not just by our mind and ears, but by a very primal part of ourselves deep within. It is why Homer, Shakespeare, stories of the Buddha, and the Bible are so powerful to us.
One of my wife’s friends has a blog (it is a great read if you have a chance) and the other day he posted a lament about Hollywood Rehash. As part of that he pointed out 3 story archetypes:
(1) The Orphan Messiah. Kid’s parents die; he is raised alone as an orphan, often by meanies, and thinks he’s a nobody; kid realizes, with the help of a grandfatherly mentor that he has super powers; kid saves the city, the country, and sometimes even the world.
Harry Potter, The Sword in the Stone or The Once and Future King, The Matrix, Star Wars, Spiderman, Avatar, The Hobbit, Superman.(2) The Dream Team Travelogue. Random, often awesomely powerful, strangers must band together in order to save the world/save the cheerleader/win the game/escape from prison etc. This story often includes the reluctant wunderkind, the average guy, the Wookie/Warrior, the wise teacher (who ALWAYS dies), the lovable rogue and/or the beautiful princess who all pool their individual talents to overcome tragedy, personal betrayal and other emotional things to–save the world.
Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, Lawrence of Arabia, The Seven Samurai(3) The War. Snippets from people’s lives that have been ravaged or are being ravaged by war. Often they are overcoming odds just to survive, but sometimes they also win the war. It doesn’t even have to be physical war–it can be drugs, politics, intrigue, high school, you name it. There is a central conflict with delineated sides of good and evil and usually a nice kid/cheerleader/soldier we can relate to. Sometimes we get the villain’s version of things. In the happy versions of this story, the protagonist wins out and everyone becomes friends. In the sad version, people die and nothing is solved.
All is Quiet on the Western Front, Schindler’s List, Hamlet, MacBeth, Platoon, Mean Girls.
From: Eric Boyd Vogeler – http://ebv.blogspot.com/2010/01/reboot.html
My wife read this post to me while we were driving to Vegas this past weekend, after I had told her about my Avatar post and recounted the story of the movie to her. It got me buzzed especially because I had recently seen a movie trailer for a movie whose story appears to be similar to an idea for a story I had 6 or 7 years ago… (sure wish I had followed through on it now…) The idea of retelling the same stories over and over again is fascinating to me, and to be fair it is story archetypes that are reused not the stories themselves.
Which brings me to Ira Glass. He is one of the best storytellers out there. Each week on This American Life he chooses a theme and brings you a series of stories on that theme (fans of TAL I know you are smiling right now). So after my wife and I had been driving for a bit we fired up the ole’ iPod and started listening to some This American Life Podcasts. As is common we were lulled away into the captivating headspace that is This American Life, and the unique storytelling style of Ira Glass. He (and his team) is so good at telling these stories that Shotime has made a TV versionof the show. I suppose you coud ask Ira Glass why it is so success and I am sure he would have a good answer for you. I think it is because they tell real stories, about real people using elements from storytelling that have been around for ages.
Some day I would love to be a storyteller of tesame calibre as Ira Glass. I think it is important to be able to pass on knowledge, wisdom, and entertainment in such a fashion. I think that is why I am driven to write like this. For those like me who are interested in telling stories here is a series of YouTube videos in which Ira lass discusses the art of storytelling… enjoy:
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