Nov. 27: Telling Stories About Telling Stories

The reading for today is how the writer can tell their story but having a storyteller tell the story. White gives to different examples; the first I don't really remember but the second is probably the best known example of the type of writing/storytelling: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. White says that the reason some writers use this storytelling method is the "magic of storytelling itself, the intrigue that is instantly generated when someone says, 'Let me tell you a story'". According to White this has an even greater effect if the storyteller seem to be very disturbed by the story or is a survivor of a harrowing experience that has left them "haunted or deranged" as a result of what has happened to them.
For Further Reflection:
Because storytelling is such a subject of wonder writers sometimes tell their story as a story. The readers then "are intrigued by the gradually unfolding connections that are made between what is going oninthe stories being told and the present circumstances."
Today's "Try This" assignment:
Create a story that has a storyteller as its narrator. You might wish to pattern her after Scheherazade or simply present the storyteller as a survivor of a harrowing incidnet who tells the story as a kind of flashback.
I don't have time to work on it but here are some ideas I jotted down in my composition book:
The narrator is:

• a survivor found washed up on a shore who tells of escaping his/her captors who are indians, or some other group of people (opposing army, kidnappers, etc.)
• an old woman sharing with a journalist or writer the true story of some incident such as an old murder, or other crime.
• an old woman sharing the story of her life with great, great grandchildren or a writer. She is over one hundred years old. To add a real twist make the narrator the daughter of the original writer. Opening line: This is the story my mother told me of her great, great grandmother who lived from 1880 to 1990.

This last idea could very well be one I could use because I have already written, in my family history, some of my Grandma Abbott's life. She lived from 1890 to 1995. I could make the story teller my granddaughter Jennifer and have the person who told her the story either me or my daughtr. This has the possibilities for a real multiple layered story.