The Origins of Evil

There once was a tribe of storytellers, nomads, and travelers who graze along the lands while collecting stories, spreading their wisdom as they moved. They were artisans of their craft and cultured future generations in the same manner. There were elders who knew the oldest stories, parents who knew the best stories, and children who knew the most fun stories. However, there was always a problem. Because there were so many people, almost everyone knew every story. They became solemn, for there were no new stories to be told.

The elders, sages atop their thrones of wisdom, called for every member of the tribe for an important meeting. “We need new stories! These which we hold dear, have become old,” the elder said. He told all the children, all the adults, everyone -to go out and look for new stories to tell. Outlandish stories, love stories, creation stories, anything, and everything was accepted. As time moved on, it became a tradition that every year, the tribe would go out and scour the lands for the best stories. Once they return, the member who told the most unique and compelling story would be crowned the best storyteller for an entire year. One child, Leema, desperately wanted to be a great storyteller, so he searched far and wide for a story that no one had told before, one where it would surprise even the elders!

After days of searching, Leema had found the most unique story in the world, but when he told it to everyone, Leema didn’t receive the response he had expected to hear. “Young child, that story is very unique, and you recited it with elegance and grace, but you must not speak of it again.” Leema was puzzled. He had told the most unique story in the world, but the elders do not seem happy about it. Nonetheless, Leema was crowned the best storyteller for that year; however, following the events of the storytelling ceremony, things around the tribe became odd.

Time passes, and the state of the tribe grew worse and worse. Leema didn’t know what was happening however and found it troubling that everyone was acting differently. Finally, Leema was visited by the elder one day, “Leema, it was an honor to hear your story on the night of the ceremony, but you must take it back, for the state of our people has become unstable because of it.” Although Leema had not known what the elder meant, he tried his best to take back the story. Days, weeks, months, and years pass… “I can’t take it back elder, I’m sorry,” Leema said. Unknowingly Leema had unleashed the stories of the wicked, of disease, of rot, of mortality, of fear, and many others. On that day, the tribe learned a new story -or, more accurately, a lesson. They continued as nomads and travelers who graze along the lands, collecting stories, but never once did Leema tell his story again. For once you have told a story, you can never take it back. So, be careful of the stories you tell, AND the stories you listen to.

Storytelling is a skill that I find quite amusing and valuable. In my personal time, I often write small snippets, short stories, or even quite synopses of events that I may string together to create a narrative later. As such, I much appreciated the way King moved through his stories, as well as his lessons of stories. I would be lying, however, if I said that I did not have trouble creating a story of my own when rewriting King’s convention of witches. As a consumer of stories, it is always a fact that I am deeply affected by the writings I read, and it influences how I see the world. Like a lens, it may become foggy or clear or even alter my perception or thinking.

During my time rewriting King’s story, I was influenced by the story of Pandora’s box, as I have deep-rooted fascinated by ancient Greek myths. But I was also influenced by the story of Eve and Satan in the fact that the evil was unleashed by an outside being. Nevertheless, I settled on something in between where Leema, an innocent child, had unknowingly released the stories of evil, in his pure innocent intents. This mirrors Pandora’s innocent in some of her retellings, and it mirrors Eve and Satan in the fact that Leema himself did not create the evil, but it was found instead. Lastly, I was influenced by King’s story of stories. Instead of a force that plunged evil into the world, such as in the case of Pandora’s box, or Satan, evil came from the knowledge that Leema spread in his stories. Akin to innocent bliss, stories can reveal to us things that we may prefer to keep hidden or unknown. For example, the Iliad had pathed the way for Alexander on his conquest.

Stories are hidden powers that people hold. During the retelling of the story itself, however, I found it quite challenging to remember the exact details themselves. I found myself changing the sequences of the events, as well as the minute details. Just as a story transforms as soon it is released into the wilds; I found myself changing the story during my time reciting it to myself. For example, the story had made Leema find a storybook in the wild, instead of discovering a story. Or, in another iteration, I hade made the elders exclude Leema from telling the stories, imprisoning him so that he could not spread the story anymore. I found these variations of the story too close to other archetypes of the origins of evils myths, so I wished to change it. I found that storytelling become more and more cumbersome depending on who I was telling the story to, as I had not wished to step on or impede on the cultures of others. However, at the same time, the limitations that I put on myself, as a result of reading King’s book made me look at a different way to tell the story of evil. Instead of following the western styles that I know of, where power exists because of a omnipotent source, I found it interesting to describe the origin of evil from the powers that humans hold. It made my look at cultures and origins in a different light, and the experience was mind opening.

Works Cited

Puchner, Martin. “How stories have shaped the world.” BBC, http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180423-how-stories-have-shaped-the-world. Accessed 22 January, 2020.

N.S, Gill. “Understanding the Significance of Pandora’s Box.” ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-pandoras-box-118577. Accessed 22 January, 2020.