Welcome back
Hello! Today we’re going to be looking at Walter Benjamin’s The Storyteller. As in this course our business is telling stories, I thought we should look at a bit of theory, and Benjamin’s essay is an extraordinary reflection on storytelling. It is ostensibly about the Russian writer Leskov—who is well worth reading—but it is much broader in scope.
Benjamin makes some big claims about information, capitalism, community, and experience. We’ll talk about these today, and do some exercises that will help us explore his essay.
Opening Questions
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What does Benjamin mean by “experience has fallen in value”?
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How can storytelling preserve experiences that information overlooks?
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What’s the difference, for Benjamin, between storytelling and information?
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What is counsel? And how can telling stories offer counsel in a way that information can’t?
Counsel and Storytelling
Write a short nonfiction piece (500–700 words) that tells a story from your life or family history that offers counsel—a piece of implicit or explicit advice. But remember to avoid moralising—let the lesson emerge from the telling. Resist the temptation to explain the meaning, /but let it emerge from the storytelling itself.
Boredom
One of my favourite lines from the essay is this one: “Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.” Write a short piece (300–500 words) that begins with something boring or repetitive—waiting in line, doing the dishes, riding a bus—and let a memory or story emerge from that moment.
Discussion
Finally, we’ll discuss this question: What does it mean to be a storyteller in a world saturated with information?
Homework
Next up, we’re going to move from boredom to flatness, and to explore the brilliant Noreen Masud’s A Flat Place. The reading is on Canvas.