The Rebirth of Storytelling

As I close in on 500 posts, I give pause to reflect from time to time on the history of this blog, and blogs in general. Back in 1984, Jean Shepherd (of A Christmas Story fame, although minimal compared to his other works) wrote a piece for NY Newsday (just Newsday back then) on "The Death of Storytelling." You can read the article here.

Now I have been a long time Shep fan, although I was not old enough to listen to him back in the day. At 2 years old, your not listening to much at 11pm. One of the longest radio careers in history, spanning 23 years on one station alone, Shep had a following. Well, more of a cult really. I stumbled upon him in my teen years, when I was known to keep vampiric hours. I had no idea this was the same man who made A Christmas Story.

I was not a fan of the movie when I first saw it in the movie theatre with my grandmother. I was quite plain about it too, my review was "I didn't like it."

Actually, upon reflection, I didn't get it would have been more accurate. But regardless, Shep is a genius in many ways you wont understand unless you have listened. And you can, here.

I highly encourage it as a matter of fact. Each broadcast is available for listening or download - think of them as early podcasts. Which is probably what would piss Ol' Shep off the most.

Anyway, he wrote about The Death of Storytelling. Related to our attention spans, TV, the changing idea of whats important and whats not, and our ability to follow a narritive.

Well, I think it might be changing.

Blogs are reaching a level of popularity rivaled only by early radio personalities. For many of us, we look to blogs for the in depth reporting, human angle, and inside information we cannot get from the daily newspaper. We look to blogs for the stories of life, time, and everything else that we cannot get from the newspaper either.

I had my own narritive, "BST", a series of entries recalling my tryst with a tumor. Readership was good while it ran, with many of the people reading coming back for more.

Many of the blogs I read deal with everyday stuff, through multiple lenses. And thats what makes them so interesting, the human filter. No one ever sees things the way you do. TV has somewhat lessened that through the years, but tv is suffering decreased viewership in favor of internet viewing. NBC recently announced that its entire back catalog of TV shows will be available for download and purchase for the iPod.

That, to me, signals a turn from the TV. When a media company has to go back and sell everything they own, it makes me wonder about the current profitability of the company.

I think the charge on this is being led by the burgeoning internet storytellers. Be they news related, personal, or general; people are possibly reading more. I say possibly because there has been no true study on this. But as my fellow bloggers can attest to, we are recieving attention. Multiple visits from the same IPs. People are rediscovering the enjoyment of hearing a story.

Think of it, as children - we all loved to be read to at night, we all loved to hear storys told of things we have never seen or places we have never been. Thats what a blog is, because no matter even if you live with the blogger, you still don't know totally whats going on in his/her mind. How they view the same exact situation out the window that you can see.

Thats where Shep's genius lie. The ability to connect with you, the listener, at the outset by framing the story in something we have all experienced. Then, slowly and deliberately, he builds it until you are on the edge, and finally - delivering the punch line. And returning to a common emotion that we can all identify with, and we do. If even for a moment we are there, with Shep, waiting for the hammer to drop and the Ol' Man to find out the truth, only to glance past and skate to freedom.

You live the highs and lows in a good story, and with any luck, the blogs you read tell a good story.

With any luck, Im telling a good story. And with any luck, your enjoying what you read.

Although I do urge you to reach out and discover some Jean Shepherd of your own, beyond ACS. There is more to the man than Fra-geel-ay(Oh, must be Italian) and the major award.

To give you an idea of the storytellers I read, go check out Lileks.com whose daily Bleats provide me with a few minutes of enjoyment, and a days worth of thinking.

Thank you for being literate, and for choosing to be so.