Parabola and Storytelling
(Page 2 of 2)
September/October 1997
Utne Reader
Where Storytelling shines, though, is in the way it
presents stories. There are three or four complete ones in each
issue, and they're resonant and lively. Sidebars profile the teller
who supplied the tale, explaining the tale's origins and offering
Tips for Telling the Story. These stories are working versions used
by professionals, not folkloric artifacts, and the fact that
they've been tested on living audiences (and, in some cases,
created by the tellers) gives them a compelling immediacy.
RELATED CONTENT
The storytelling profession is still trying to define
itself!=!=is it an entertainment medium, multicultural arena, arm
of education, timeless craft, genuine art?!=!=and so I can't help
feeling that these stories' final meanings are still to be
determined, by the tellers themselves, through the choices that
they make as a profession. For now, Storytelling offers an
intriguing window into an oral tradition in the making. Taking a
few more editorial risks would make the magazine a livelier forum
for working out the contradictions and controversies under the
cheerful surface of the story world.
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