Notwithstanding the importance placed on accuracy, oral narratives often present variations—subtle or otherwise—each time they are told. Narrators may adjust a story to place it in context, to emphasize particular aspects of the story or to present a lesson in a new light, among other reasons. Through multiple tellings, a story is fleshed out, creating a broader, more comprehensive narrative. Should listeners ever recount the narrative elsewhere, they would likely alter it to some degree to reflect their understandings of events and to better apply the story to its present context. In some instances, precision may be crucial: both precision and contextualizing have their place in oral societies.   Indigenous Foundations .arts.ubc.ca

I am not so arrogant as to attempt even heuristic science of the computer. The advantage of this platform in this medium is that I can revisit this blog – a ‘living’ document – and add / retract. Student blog.

Your task is to take the story about how evil comes into the world, the one from Silko that King’ retells in his text, The Truth About Stories — and change it to tell it. First make the story your own, you can change any elements you want, or not. The only thing you cannot change is the meaningfulness of the story. The story will always end with the same meaning:

Be careful about the stories you tell AND the stories you listen to  — because once a story is told it can never be taken back.

Learn your telling of the story by heart –  and then tell the story to your friends and family.  When you are finished, post a blog with your version of the story and some commentary on what you discovered. If you want, you can post a video of you telling the story, in place of text.

This is an unusual assignment and I encourage you to have fun with it – play with whatever ideas come to mind for you. Let your intuition and inspiration lead your storytelling choices. The best way to approach this exercise is to read the story a few times, and then begin re-telling it to as many people as you can. Let your listener shape the story. Each time you tell the story, let it change in the moment, until you find the story inside the story that you like best. Then, memorize that story by heart and tell it again to as many people as you can. Then post it on your blog in what ever form you fancy.