In message <ca0dd0a5c6548782383097923a1407e1.47334@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Joe Platt <jd_platt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes
>Hello everybody,
>
>
>This is my first time on this newsgroup so let me introdoce myself.
Wow, someone actually making use of the group for the purpose its
intended - setting forth an interesting proposition on Storytelling, and
prompting for debate.
How can I resist?
Who am I? Oh, an amateur teller, ho-hum in skills, with my main claim to
storytelling fame being nothing to do with actually telling, but running
the Society for Storytelling website and e-mail list. Watched this group
from the beginning, but I've little to actually contribute or little
time to contribute in, one or t'other
>
>I'm a man of wealth and taste :)
>(It's such an old joke but I couldn't resist)
>
>
>My name's Joe Platt and I spend much of my time studying dolphins in the
>Outer Hebridies (A group of islands off the West Coast of Scotland).
>Somewhere along the line while I was up there I fell into storytelling.
>Personally I blame Ceilidhes. For those for whom the term is unfamiliar,
>or who can't decipher my spelling, they're a gaelic dance/session/party.
>You're expected to do a turn
What is it?
Crack a tale,
Sing a song,
Show your bum,
Or out you're gone
Something like that
> and in order to avoid inflicting my singing
>voice on the ensemble I ended up telling a story <Neil Gaimen's Dream of
>a thousand cats>.
I'll have to return to it, to see whether I could use it as well. I've
only told a few literary sources, and, umm, probably no comic sources -
they tend not to be designed for telling, more for reading, and there is
a difference.
>
>It got a pretty favourable reaction, people particuarly liking the
>story. With Ceilidhes being fairly common I thought I could do the same
>thing next time and so started preparing a story for the next one. And
>so the avalance started.
>
>I started about two years ago and in the meantime have managed to
>include some stories into a radio show called Fishtank which I do for
>local community radio station Isles FM.
>
>I've got to admit I'm completely hooked. Maybe it's the joy of taking my
>inability to stop talking and turning it to a useful, nay creative,
>purpose. Maybe it's the challenge because I don't know about you guys
>but I find it very difficult.
I find its the happy moments when you are lost in the story you are
telling or listening to, giving it your all - an almost trance state.
> Remembering the story, keeping the
>audience interested, maintaining clarity and above all keeping it smooth
>and flowing. For some strange reason it seems a lot easier on radio. I
>guess not being able to see your audience actually helps :).
Odd, I normally think being able to see your audience prompts to speed
up if interest is lagging, or draw out a good bit if it seems to be
winning.
>
>Now that's who I am and what I do, so, why am I here?
>
>Well first, it's always nice meeting people who you share a passion with
>but I also wanted some feedback on something I've encountered,
>particuarly feedback from people with experience in storytelling. I'd
>come across the storytelling tradition in Scotland several years
>perviously and quickly came to realsie that there were a small number of
>dedicated people who are maintaining the tradition. So I, like I suspect
>a great many people, associated the art with two main things.
>
>Fairytales and children.
>
>Every story I'd ever heard told was some variation on folktale or
>legend, and almost exclusively was rooted in celtic/gaelic myth.
It's well worth reading myths from other cultures, but they will feel
alien - find a good selection of Native American tales, for instance. I
do tell a few such, but there's always an odd mood to them.
Oh, and don't forget that there are a scattering of English (or Anglo
Saxon) tales if you go looking. And all the fine Grimm tales (many of
which were never designed for children)
> Now
>that's great. That's wonderful. Please don't think I'm criticising them
>because really I'm not. I really enjoy them but when I started telling
>stories myself they weren't the kinds of stories I was telling. I was
>using material from short story collections, comics and some from TV
>shows like X Files and Farscape.
>
>Incidently it's suprisingly hard to find modern authors who write short
>story anthologies. I'm very grateful to Stephen King.
>
>And that's what people liked. I'm not that bad at telling them but what
>got people hooked were the stories. They liked the fact that the story
>was directed at them as an adult, and they liked the dark, and slightly
>disturbing, nature of some of the stories I picked.
Hmmm, its an interesting path you've taken - and its a testimony to your
skill that written tales, never designed for telling, work well for you.
But there are edgy tales, bawdy tales, dark tales, very much aimed at
adults that are part of various traditions. You have to dig for them
amongst the bowdlerised forms (probably the dirtiest traditional tale is
in that *cough* paragon of children's tales the 1001 nights. The kiddies
never get certain nights! Though perhaps the Finnish tradition might win
that challenge)
>
>Talking to my audience I soon became clear that none of them had heard
>storytellers telling stories aimed at a mature audience. So, getting to
>my point at last, I was wondering if anybody out there told similar
>stories and whether anyones interested in expanding into this area. It's
>real fun even if it's never more than a party trick to entertain your
>freinds.
Ah, come to the Storytelling Festivals (Festival at the Edge, for
instance) and choose your tellers wisely, and your wishes will be
answered. For all that, I'd love to hear your style of telling, if only
for contrast.
Perhaps its just that all that is available in the Islands is
traditional telling of your own cultures tales - and if so, its great
there's that culture at all. Down here, I get the feeling that telling
have been revived from near death, by adults, so that many tales are
chosen to please adults, but the foundations are a little weak.
>
>Anyway love to know what you guys think. Please forgive my spelling and
>that although I might be able to blather I can't write for squat. Look
>forward to hearing from you.
>
>
>Bye now.
>
>
>Joe
>
>
>P.S. There is one group of professionals who do tell ***y, funny
>stories. Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Bill Hicks. Some of the best
>storytellers I've ever heard.
Listen to a traditional teller, should you ever get the chance, like Cat
Weatherill - that might change your view.
--
Kevin Blackburn SfS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Society for Storytelling website is at http://www.sfs.org.uk
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