| Questions, Intuitions, Revisions:
Telling and Re-Telling Stories About Ourselves in the World
A College Seminar Course at Bryn Mawr College
|
Forum 2 - What is a "story"?
Name: Hayley Thomas
Username: hthomas@brynmawr.edu
Subject: story me
Date: 2002-09-09 19:40:41
Message Id: 2569
Comments:
Saludos, QIR folks!!!
As you know, each week, Anne, Paul and I will ask you to respond via the forum to a question or issue generated by the materials in the coursepack and/or in class discussions.
The *most excellent* students in my section of our fabulous cluster have been engaged in inspired and ever unfinished conversation about what constitutes a "story" since late last week. We'd love to have you join (see Victoria and following) and further shape the discussion.
To wit, please share your current thoughts on what is a story and/or makes a story. Remember, this sharing/writing is meant to be informal, conversational and evocative, on a good day. So put away your dictionaries and aspirations to "rightness" and let us know what you really think.
As always, your thoughts and your courage in the sharing are noticed and appreciated.
HST
Name:
Username: Anonymous
Subject: A story is...
Date: 2002-09-09 19:56:14
Message Id: 2570
Comments:
Creativity, imagination and craft are apparent in stories. What else could keep childrens' attention as they sit around camp fires, cold and scared and sick from too many marshmallows? Stories grab attention, just as a piece of artwork provokes an immediate liking or disgust. Thus, story-telling, or story-writing, is an art form, a manifestation of expression. People flock to museums to be inspired. For a similar reason, people read stories. Stories grab readers' interest by including them in the mind of the writer. The children around the campfire listen to stories attentively because they are involved in predicting what will happen.
Name: Beth
Username: blennon@brynmawr.edu
Subject: A Story is...
Date: 2002-09-10 10:26:43
Message Id: 2583
Comments:
I can definitely see the logic behind the whole anything is a story. Is a blackboard a story? i would rephrase that and say a blackboard tells a story. The way you look at anything defines if it tells a story or not. it is all in your head.
Name: Rachel Steinberg
Username: rsteinbe@brynmawr.edu
Subject: What does one mean by a story?
Date: 2002-09-10 14:44:11
Message Id: 2587
Comments:
I think of a story as a description of anything- it can be nonfictional or fictional. For example, when one of your friends says "Oh, I have to tell you a story", it's usually something that happened to them or someone they knew. However, a fairy tale for example is also another kind of story, one that would go into the category of "bedtime stories", made up stories that just kind of make you feel good and happy. And then there are so many other kinds, stories that make you scared, sad, or stories that you learn from. In general, there are no guidelines for stories, as long as someone is telling or writing anything.
Name: Anne Dalke
Username: adalke@brynmawr.edu
Subject: Learning in School/Not
Date: 2002-09-10 14:56:00
Message Id: 2588
Comments:
Whent the McBrides and I discussed the first paragraphs of their "lives of learning" in class today, we noticed--besides the wide varieties of interesting ways to get a story started and tease your audience into wanting "more"--a very marked pattern: NONE of these tales were located in the classroom. We're wondering what the patterns were like in the other sections, where other "generations" are speaking: are your lives of learning school-based, school-centric, or set largely in other sites, as ours are?
Name: Kristina Copplin
Username: kcopplin@brynmawr.edu
Subject: what makes a story?
Date: 2002-09-10 18:41:33
Message Id: 2601
Comments:
I think it's really difficult to explain the what exactly a story is because it varies from person to person. I think of a story as any way through which a person expresses themself- thus not all stories are text- music and art can also be stories. Though a blackboard may not be a story in itself, a person could always generate a tale from it. While the way in which a story is told differs it is always a means of expression for the author or artist.
Name: Gwenyth Cavin
Username: Celest54@aol.com
Subject: A story is...
Date: 2002-09-10 18:48:32
Message Id: 2602
Comments:
A story is simply a written or oral expression of fictional or non-fictional events, ideas, thoughts or anything else! There is no set definition of a "story" because stories can vary so widely to many topics, and expressed in many forms. Novels, gossip, daily news, and class lectures are all stories. We probably hear hundreds, maybe even thousands of stories a day. Stories can't even be defined by their audience because wouldn't talking to your dog about your day (oh, you know you do it!!) still be a story??? Stories seem to have been around forever beginning with primitive speech and cave-wall scribblings and will continue to exist as long as humans themselves do.
Name: Jessie
Username: jposilki@brynmawr.edu
Subject: What is a story?
Date: 2002-09-10 20:24:25
Message Id: 2604
Comments:
Stories are a specific art form, just as drawing and dance are different from one another. It is very easy to make everything seem like a "dance" or a "story," but to me, they both have their own criteria. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end to me. They require some sort of climax, or action, or action verb, to make it move along. Stories tell about or descibe places, things and people, and their subsequesnt interaction. (The cat jumped over the log.)
I think that's what I wanted to say, it wasn't a story, just a comment.
Name: Margaret Ketchersid
Username: deputy@delanet.com or mketcher@brynmaw
Subject: What is a story?
Date: 2002-09-10 22:12:47
Message Id: 2607
Comments:
I think of a story as something kind of warm, something that you connect to emotionally. You experience an emotional connection with the author. (or maybe your subconscious does)It doesn't necessarily mean the story has to be happy; when we say "What a sad story," we have made connection to the author or storyteller, just as if we'd said, "what a great story!" or funny story or whatever. It's kind of intimate.
I see a narrative as dry version of a story, it may grab you intellectually or rationally, but it probably won't touch you way down inside. I see fairy tales more as metaphors that have overarching themes, maybe of a psychological or metaphysical nature. They instruct and/or warn us about the human condition. Folk tales are similar to fairy tales, I think, except maybe they also tell a history of culture or place. They may connect us to our past but possibly not on a personal level.
Then I think, well, where would say, mystery novels or those very cool Patrick O'Brien books fit in this scenario? If something resonates with you and you make a connection but the person sitting next to you thinks it's dry as dust, what is it? My criteria for what makes a story kind of flies out the window! Maybe my reasoning is flawed or maybe it's all subjective anyway. If it touches you, it's a story. If it doesn't, maybe it's someone else's story. I don't know! All I can say for sure is that I think a story is more than a group of sentences that moves from point A to point B and has a beginning, middle and end.
Well, I've never thought about this before. Very interesting and I'm looking forward to hearing everybody's thoughts.
Name: Abigail Bruhlmann
Username: abruhlma@brynmawr.edu
Subject: what is a story?
Date: 2002-09-10 22:41:44
Message Id: 2608
Comments:
I never realized that finding a fitting definition for "story" could be so complicated. To tell the truth, i had never much thought of this definition to begin with, because this word is so simple. i guess one just assumes that one knows what it means without ever pausing to analyze it, which is what we have spent the past week doing.
I don't think this discussion can possibly culminate in a set definition of a story, and nor should it, because everyone views stories differently. one's personal experiences make stories come alive. stories are then reshaped when people re-tell the stories they have heard and add their own perspectives.
a story isn't the event, the object, or the idea, but rather the form in which these things are presented to others and to oneself. human emotions and opinions change something that merely exists to something that has a meaning all of its own.
Name: whitney
Username: geminive@aol.com
Subject: a story is...
Date: 2002-09-11 15:05:48
Message Id: 2620
Comments:
A story is a way of telling something. I don't necessarily think the contents of whatever is being told is integral to the definition of the word... just that there is a tapestry of things happening, concerning a central idea. stories have to do with processes- reinvention, decontruction, growth. I don't agree with the idea of a "beginning, middle and end"- stories can be neverending.
Name: Alexandria Frizell
Username: afrizell@brynmawr.edu
Subject: A Story
Date: 2002-09-11 15:16:58
Message Id: 2622
Comments:
A story is an expression about an experiance. It could be written, oral, or visual. A story can be anything- from the reason you bought a black lamp as opposed to a blue lamp or what the first world war was fought over. Almost anything can become a story.
Name: Mel Brickley-Raab
Username: mbrickle@brynmawr.edu
Subject: what makes a story
Date: 2002-09-11 19:06:26
Message Id: 2631
Comments:
To me words, pictures and movement are vehicles for stories. ideas, emotions, past experiencs and thoughts are the guts of stories. indivual life experiences determine how we interpret and analyze stories.
Name: orah minder
Username: ominder@brynmawr.edu
Subject: stories
Date: 2002-09-11 21:15:53
Message Id: 2633
Comments:
I have been thinking more about what makes something a story. In our first class discussion i was of the group that said that a blackboard on a wall is a story if seen by a person. I've changed my mind. I think that there has to be an action involved for something to be considered a story. The random house dictionary defines a story as: a written or spoken account of something that has happened. A blackboard has not 'happened.'If the line was: the cat watched the blackboard; that is a story. When a writer has to make choices, i think the writing is a story. But there is no decition making in saying: the bloackboard. Story tellers are artists and art is made up of personal decitions made by the artist.
Another idea:
Today in class we were talking about how the 'once upon a time' in a fairy tale puts us into another dimention one that is not tied down by time. The fairy tale takes place in another world. When on enters the world of the fiary tale one has to be able to beleive that mice can turn into men and men can crawl into the ass-holes of elephants. The physical constraints of this world do not tie the charachters of a fairytale down. I think this is very similar to the world of fantasy. What is the difference between the two? maybe...fantasy deals with a world in which there are supernatural characters alongside the human characters. In the fairytale the characters are humans but the suroundings are supernatural.
Name: samea
Username: iadieeve@aol.com
Subject: fairy tales
Date: 2002-09-11 22:36:43
Message Id: 2635
Comments:
i think its ... i dunno almost wrong... for someone to make fairy tales into a realistic story... or to try and translate a fairy tale into a realistic setting... because then it no longer fits the title "fairy tale" and it just steals the whole point of the fairy tale... they're meant to be magical and wonderful... and if we try to break everything down into politically correct//incorrect, or realistic//impossible then it just takes away the wonder and fantasy that everyone needs in their life... i think i already said this in class... oh well!!
Name: samea
Username: Anonymous
Subject: fairy tales
Date: 2002-09-11 22:38:23
Message Id: 2636
Comments:
oh yea.. and about the "once upon a time" thing... i think that small brief phrase changes everything... because no longer does it take me to a different time... it takes me to a time that doesnt necessarily haev to exist in our history... in a place that doesnt reallie exist in the world... almost to another dimension that allows all the fantasy that is a part of a fairy tale//folk tale
Name: Kim Cadena
Username: kcadena@bryn mawr.edu
Subject: What is a story?
Date: 2002-09-11 23:56:30
Message Id: 2639
Comments:
A story is a narration of what happened. Beginning, middle, end, these are not necessary for a story, only some telling of what occurred. Actually, as frosh, we've been telling a lot of stories these past weeks as a way to relate to one another. Most of these stories are context-defined, a way of saying 'hey, the same thing happened to me, and here's how.' Usually, their told as just middles or beginnings or ends because the whole story is not something the people here would understand since they weren't there the first time and don't know the protagonists. Stories are histories (or verstories, if you prefer).
Name: Natalie
Username: nbishar
Subject: story
Date: 2002-09-12 01:22:03
Message Id: 2640
Comments:
story: words that form in some coherent way, where molded out of a mound of clay, are characters, a place, a time, a purpose or lack there of. Perhaps these characters perform a comedy, tragedy, a romance. But what a story does is captivate its audience, it brings them into the story so that they too are living the story as it unfolds.
Name: Claire
Username: cmahler@brynmawr.edu
Subject: what is a story?
Date: 2002-09-12 16:01:40
Message Id: 2645
Comments:
A story is not easily defined: it can be fictional or nonfictional; have a moral or not; have a finite beginning and ending or be continuous; and so on. Nearly everything around us has a story linked with it (whether it be in the form of a memory or idea or tradition etc). A series of events or a dialogue or action, in chronological order or not constitutes a simple tale which then can be fleshed out with detail to form the commonly thought of fairytale or novel.
(Phew! This really is a tricky term to describe specifically, and yes, I am glad that I don't work for Webster's!)
Name: Ro. Finn
Username: rofinn@earthlink.net
Subject: Defining "story"
Date: 2002-09-13 06:36:28
Message Id: 2655
Comments:
Hi all,
For me, a story is a definite sequencing of ideas or thoughts by someone, cast in ink. Often, we consider ideas or thoughts as floating, disjoint "emblems". The writer connects her chosen emblems. When it's done well, it's more than a report of facts or views. It leaves room for each of us to make new connections of our own... or not.
Name: Adina
Username: ahalpern@brynmawr.edu
Subject: story
Date: 2002-09-13 11:14:17
Message Id: 2657
Comments:
A story can really be anything. It can be a short and simple book read to a child at bedtime or a complicated narrative read and studied by college students. Stories can be plucked from imaginations, or they can be actual events. They do not have to be recorded. A story can be a series of events that happened in the past, that will happen in the future, or that are happening as I write in this forum.
Name: Molly Mae
Username: mcooke@brynmawr.edu
Subject: How I Define A Story
Date: 2002-09-14 22:15:20
Message Id: 2680
Comments:
Defining a story...At first it didn't seem obvious, I have to admit. I wondered how I would approach this seemingly complex and difficult question of How I Define A Story. My mind starts stretching to the outer limits of the most extreme and bizarre stories I've heard. If a story can include so many new ideas, so many worlds of knowledge, how can I, little old me, even dream of defining it in a few short words?
Good. I see I'm not the only one struggling. Having read a bunch of the comments above, I would now easily define a story - and I'd do so very narrowly, conservatively; with the practical matter of clear communication as my primary argument:
When I say story, or when I hear you say story, I understand it to mean the repeated telling of a sequence of events that resulted in some revelation that made it worth re-telling by means of print or picture or song or dance or word.
ta da.
Name: Joy Woffindin
Username: jwoffind@brynmawr.edu
Subject: a story = ?
Date: 2002-09-15 00:41:32
Message Id: 2681
Comments:
I believe a story can be anything that takes you out of yourself and your own realm of thinking. A story puts you in "the shoes" (to be cliche about it) of another character(s) (fictional or real, human or nonhuman) - and a good story may make you question, confirm, or refine your beliefs and way of thinking about the world. No matter how frivolous, short, or simple a story is, we take a least a small piece of it with us after we read, hear or otherwise experience it, even though we may or may not remember it a week later.
Other than that, I believe the definition of a story can be quite broad, For example, I don't think a story has to follow the typical beginning-middle-end format, or even have a main character in the traditional sense of the word. For example, the history of the earth or (wo)mankind are both very meaningful "stories" that certainly do not fit the typical mold.
- Joy W. : )
Name: Bonnie Balun
Username: balunbj@aol.com
Subject: What is a story?
Date: 2002-09-16 06:09:23
Message Id: 2706
Comments:
a story?...written words trying to express the complexities of the human heart...stratching the surface, searching for truth, looking for words to describe the undescribable, a feeling, an emotion, a corporate connection among "readers" to something beyond ourselves and mere words.
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