Many, many years ago,the land of the people was a different place. There was laughter and tears, happiness and joy, love and hate. For since the start of time there was good and bad. It was a perfect world and the witch people kept that balance in perfection.
The witch people were the Guardians since the start of time. They were a group of 13 and their numbers never changed. 6 good and 7 bad, and that was and is still.
Each year they gathered all together. it was when they presented their new inventions to the world and shared in each others company for a time. First they drank their fill and ate some of the finest foods and then enjoyed all sorts of games.
And then there was the contest. Each witch told a story that shared their newest creation with world. The creations were good or bad, matching the countenance of the teller.
So one told a story of men and women and children living on the land year after year. Then the other told of one person who hated another. Then another witch countered with a story of one who learned forgiveness. And so it continued with the good and the bad witches telling their stories in turn, each one countering the one before.
Soon it was the turn of the sixth and final of the bad witches to tell her story. She was not the worst of the witches and her story was not the most horrible of the stories.
She told a story of one who saw all the evil that was already in the world. That was not new but then she added her invention. She added a person who saw but choose to not speak; she told a story of a person who choose to keep silent.
And of all the stories of murder and hate and jealousy and war, it was this story that shocked the witches the most. Even the bad witches gasped in shock. And the good witch who still had her story to tell filled it with so much love, hope, family, growth, and joy.
But still with all the good things she had filled her story with, this story could not counter the one before. All the witches All of them, good and bad, turned to the witch of silence.
“That story cannot be told,” they cried. “Take it back for we have nothing to balance it with. We have no good thing to oppose silence.” They begged her to take her story back. But she couldn’t. “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, 10).
The question of evil in the world is often told in a Pandora’s Box-style metaphor. Its intersection with the concept of stories is interesting. Once it is out, there’s no taking it back. I really enjoyed this assignment…the creative aspect alone was fun. But also seeing the way it is experienced by people I told it to and how their reaction changed my story.
My sister asked about the silence, and had a lively debate about what silence meant in this context. If I meant silence as in one’s own deeds or in a more global outlook. I found then that when I went to transcribe the story to this blog, I had fine-tuned a few parts to make it clearer as to the story i wanted to tell.
Earlier we learned that the each time a storyteller retells a story, it takes on apart of them too. After this lesson, I also learned that the listeners too change the story. Oral storytelling allows them to react and interact, whether it is with words or just facial expressions. They too change the story the next time it is retold.
Hey Maryam,
I really enjoyed your story! It was most interesting to me because of how different our approaches were to the assignment. Where I chose to reinvent the scenario, you chose to maintain and elaborate, putting more ‘guts’ into the story. When I first read King’s version of the story, I was confused by the fact that it seemed rushed over, like King intentionally told the story with the minimum amount of detail (in contrast to his creation story that followed) as you would if you wanted to get to the point. I suppose sometimes that is the role stories take, more instructive and focussed rather than detailed and ‘ideal.’ Your story gave me the opportunity to imagine these witches in my minds eye, the good and the bad, taking into account the number thirteen and why that is significant to them. I also appreciate how the ‘witch of silence’ was simultaneously the most passive, and the individual which made the largest impact. I can’t wait to read your story on Monday, great job!
Nick W
Thanks Nick! I agree about King’s telling of the story; it was as though he told just the threadbare structure leaving off all the trimmings. When I put 13 witches, it took me a while to decide if it was too cliche. In the end I thought the allusions which are so many added depth so I went with it.
Hello Maryam,
Thank you for your story. I truly enjoyed reading it. I like how you took Stilko’s story as a framework, but deepened it by adding the contrast/conflict between the good witches and the bad witches. I also liked the clever detail of the witches numbering 13 – a most auspicious number, and totally appropriate for the size of the Guardian witch population.
Just a note on the textual representation of your story – the line breaks allow for the story to flow quite nicely, and I can see how, when spoken, these line breaks would sync up to the natural pauses in the story.
I really admire your choice to highlight the most horrific evil of all as being the banality of evil. It’s not an obvious choice, but probably the most realistic one.
Having read a few stories by other classmates, I must say that I really like the addition of the last paragraph of Stilko’s story; it serves as a nice coda. Your thought on how tellers and listeners interact and augment stories was on point as well. You choice to link to Einstein’s quote does much to clarify what kind of silence you mean to highlight in your story.
Merriam
Hi Merriam (name buddies!) So glad you enjoyed it 🙂 Thank you. I wrote the story as though I was retelling it, which is probably why the line breaks are like that. The hyperlink usage, something I am new to, is really valuable for the very point you made.It allows the writer to define/explain without bogging down the story in the process.
Hey Maryam,
I am so interested in your approach to Evil entering the world, in particular how it is separate from Good and Bad and also how nothing can balance it out. It makes me think of Evil as something that although it does exist, is something that exists outside of our realm. It is something that exerts great influence on our minds, but it is also so far removed from what it means to be a human that things like war and jealousy are not natural. I know there are many stories on what it is to be a natural human being, but i love this idea of even hate existing in the world but not Evil as your story started. It is as if we didn’t judge our natural state of Good and Bad until Evil came along out of a witch’s mind. Im going on a story search!
Thank you!
Brendan
Thanks Brendan. It’s something I have always wondered…if something bad is necessarily evil. I like to think it is not. That there is a way to fix the ‘bad’ things/mistakes. I like your description of it as “outside of our realm.”
And I look forward to hearing about any stories you do dig up!