Introduction to Thomas King – Storytelling

I am going to tell you a story. “I’ve heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other times it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience.” (King 1). This is the story of how evil came to exist in the world.

Long before the development of civilization as we know it now, existed a more reduced form, albeit more advanced in terms of societal order than one might expect. This primitive form of human civilization was organized in a short string of small communities, in which the people lived long lives in peaceful harmony. Each child was born knowing nothing of true conflict or its consequences, as they were raised to want for nothing and work equally amongst their peers. Often the children would wonder about the nearby communities, and eventually take long walks to visit them once they were old enough. However, these towns were very similar, and the people would always return.

Thus, it was not surprising at all when a young man began to wonder what existed beyond the borders of his seemingly mundane community. He set out one day, in search of new experiences in the other towns.

When he reached the community closest to his own, he felt as though he had hardly left. He wandered the streets until he came across a small marketplace. A merchant called him over to his stand, where an array of colourful potions lay in vials.

“Will any of these make me feel different?” The young man asked, and the merchant handed an orange potion to him. After drinking the potion, the young mans stomach began to churn and his skin began to crawl. “I do not like this feeling.”

The merchant handed him another potion, an antidote that immediately caused the churning stomach and crawling skin to disappear. The young man thanked the merchant for the odd experience, and began to continue his walk to the next town.

When he reached the next community, he again noticed that it was hardly different at all from his own. He explored the seemingly familiar streets until he came across another marketplace. A merchant called him over, where a table of colourful mushrooms sat on display.

“Will any of these make me feel different?” The young man asked again, and the merchant handed him a purple mushroom. After eating it, the young man began to hallucinate, seeing shadowy figures and darkness everywhere he looked. “I do not like this feeling.”

The merchant told him to wait a moment, for the mushroom to digest. Shortly after, the hallucinations subsided entirely. The young man thanked the merchant for the strange visions, and began to walk to the next town.

Just outside of the next community, he came across another wanderer. She was wearing a dark hooded cloak, and pulled the hood from over her face as she greeted the young man. She asked how his walk through the communities had been, and he explained his desire to experience new things despite how everything was the same. She offered to tell him a story, but warned him of its peculiarity. 

“I have already experienced some strange things today, I assure you I can handle it.” He insisted, and so she began her story.

She told him a story of darkness, in which shadowy figures take on the faces of both humans and creatures and act against the goodness of his familiar world. It was a story of violence, corruption, and betrayal like he had never known. The young man began to imagine the shadowy figures all around him, and his skin began to crawl as his stomach churned.

“I do not like this feeling.” He said to her, and waited for her to intervene or for it to go away. “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”. (King 11).

Reflection

As I was creating this modified version of Lelsie Silko’s story about how evil came into the world, I found it useful to consider the structure of stories that I have engaged with throughout my entire life, such as those of childrens’ movies and fairy tales. These were the forms through which I was provided digestible lessons of history and morality in my youth, so I thought it was helpful to consider the rules of great story telling as told by Pixar. I also wanted to create this story in a way that resembled that of a folk-tale, so I integrated storytelling techniques of the monomyth and mountain structure.

As I told the story to different people, I found that the “reader” response varied considerably depending on who was listening. When I told the story to my roommate, she interpreted it in a fairly philosophical manner and discussed with me the danger that oblivion poses despite its apparent benefits. Conversely, when I told it story to my Mom, she interpreted as a simple curiosity-killed-the-cat story. I found this interesting because they both made sense of the ending of the story similarly, recognizing the irreversible nature of telling a story. However, they drew different conclusions from this fact, with one preferring some stories to remain untold while the other saw a power in total knowledge. This helped me to recognize the power that storytelling really has on continuing discussions of culture and tradition in terms of moral character, as this simple story stimulated two significant conversations regarding the eternal and irreversible nature of knowledge through stories.

Works Cited

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough: Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

Peters, Brian. “6 Rules of Great Storytelling (As Told by Pixar).” Medium. 21 Mar. 2018. Web. https://medium.com/@Brian_G_Peters/6-rules-of-great-storytelling-as-told-by-pixar-fcc6ae225f50. 23 Jan. 2020.

“8 Classic Storytelling Techniques for Engaging Presentations.” Sparkol. 30 March 2018. Web. https://www.sparkol.com/en/blog/8-classic-storytelling-techniques-for-engaging-presentations. 23 Jan. 2020.