Excerpt from Thomas Kings book The Truth about stories (pages 9,10):
Stories are wondrous thing. And they are dangerous. The Native novelist Leslie Silko, in her book Ceremony, tells how evil came into the world. It was witch people. Not Whites or Indians or Blacks or Asians or Hispanics. Witch people. Witch people from all over the world, way back when, and they all came together for a witches’ conference. In a cave. Having a good time. A contest, actually. To see who could come up with the scariest thing. Some of them brewed up potion in pots. Some of them jumped in and out of animal skins. Some of them thought up charms and spells.
It must have been fun to watch.
Until finally there was only one witch left who hadn’t done anything. No one knew where this witch came from or if the witch was male or female. And all this witch had was a story.
Unfortunately the story this witch told was an awful thing full of fear and slaughter, disease and blood. A story of murderous mischief. And when the telling was done, the other witches quickly agreed that this witch had won the prize.
“Okay you win,” they said, “[B]ut what you said just now– it isn’t funny. It doesn’t sound so good. We are doing okay without it. We can get along without that kind of thing. Take it back, Call that story back.”
But, of course, it was too late. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.