narrative & voice

our dear friends here at school had the incredibly bright idea of hosting an evening of oral interpretation of literature, where everyone comes to their house in the evening, brings a "theological beverage of choice" (meaning whatever they want to drink that may help them wax eloquent now and then...) and a scarf (to look scholarly and literary), and we read j.d. salinger's "franny & zooey." excellent. (they read the first half a few weeks ago but we couldn't be there.) (i think at least half of this post so far is in parentheses [but that makes it more fun, doesn't it? {or am i just a nerd like that?}])

anyway, so there were about 15 people in their little apartment living room, the lights were low, there was a podium with a reading lamp and a stool, and we took turns (by drawing names from a bowl) reading out loud to each other this story. it's amazing to me how oral tradition has been part of so many cultures before us--it's a part of the very fabric of our beings, i think--and yet we don't do it anymore. when was the last time you sat around reading out loud or intentionally telling a story to other people you don't know very well? (or people you do know well, for that matter!) in this culture we watch a lot of movies and tv, which are stories, but they don't often engage the imagination in the same way. you don't get to know the people you're with when you're watching a movie. there's no sense of intimacy or sharing any piece of yourself or having to be vulnerable. but with reading aloud you share an experience, you share part of yourself, your very voice, that which communicates who you are to the world, as you communicate another's text in your own interpretation.

storytelling is an art that's really pretty much lost on our culture. so it was cool to have the experience of coming together with people and enjoying the kind of community that's built from simply being together and sharing experiences on a dark winter's evening.

(going back to my topic from the other day about the popularity of blogs, i think maybe this is a key part of the reason--we're storytellers by nature, with no one with whom to share our stories...a sad and lonely society caught up in our pretense of perfection. but our humanity has its way of leaking through in the most unexpected places, even the technological world of the internet. hmm...)


photos courtesy of our new friend nolan.