Leadership is an important quality in society. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. [attributed to Colin Powell] In order to be a leader, a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for leadership…
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Value for Thursday of Week 11 in the season of Sowing
Narratives
Humans are storytellers. Storytelling appears to be closely related to and well-explained by our evolutionary history.
- . . . storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it . . . [Hannah Arendt]
- The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie . . . brings a whole set of unique experiences. Now, through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time. But you can’t get everybody to interpret the result in the same way. And that’s thrilling to know — that everybody will see it differently. [Steven Sopielberg]
- . . . the dead can only live with the exact intensity and quality of the life imparted to them by the living. [Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (1911), Part Four.]
- We’re so complex; we’re mysteries to ourselves; we’re difficult to each other. And then storytelling reminds us we’re all the same. [attributed to Brad Pitt]
Our capacity and inclination to tell stories is a main context of human life. We evolved as a social species with a capacity for language and other symbolic and abstract forms of thinking. Out of this came our inclination to tell stories, and the power we attach to them. Essentially all of our novels and short stories, biographies and histories, and films (movies) tell a story, or stories.
Storytelling is “a fundamental part of being human”. (That is why I call my website, which expands on the work in this book, “thisisourstory”.) “From gathering around the camp-fire telling tales of ancestors to watching the latest television box-set, humans are inveterate producers and consumers of stories.”
“Skillful storytelling helps listeners understand the essence of complex concepts and ideas in meaningful and often personal ways. For this reason, storytelling is being embraced by scientists who not only want to connect more authentically with their audiences, but also want to understand how the brain processes this powerful form of communication.” Scholarly research examines the “story as knowledge, the value of personal storytelling, the moral purposes of stories, and the use of story in healing”, and in other ways.
“. . . sharing stories connects us to one another.” “The tales we tell hold powerful sway over our memories, behaviors and even identities . . .” “A novel, poem, or play may reinforce and refine our sense of the world’s patterns through the symmetry, balance, and unity of its forms, or it may disrupt and overturn our customary syntheses by transgressing established conventions and refusing to satisfy our expectations about how parts fit together into wholes.” “. . . scientific storytelling may be an optimal way of communicating research to nonspecialists.”
“Reality in narrative fiction (as in all art forms) is shaped reality. That neurobiology as a science deals with the general and the universal and as such can only begin dealing with the particular and the individual through applications in technology.” “. . . clear narratives cut through distractions. Stories help us pay attention–particularly in this attention era, when vying for people’s focus is more coveted than ever. When we see or hear a story, the neurons in our brain fire in the same patterns as the speaker’s, a process known as ‘neural coupling.’ You also hear it referred to as ‘mirroring.’” Neuroscientists are studying brain activity during storytelling.
Consider a few examples from literature. Hugo’s Les Miserables illustrates a Humanist concept of justice in a way that is perhaps more easily understandable than any analytical writing can do. Probably the most compelling parts of The Bible are the parables; consult this handbook and other scholarly works for detailed accounts of biblical narratives. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and Christie’s mysteries illustrate the value of reason in similar but distinguishable ways (compare and contrast Holmes and Christie). Fiction writers can tell a story that they do not intend to tell, as they are trying to tell other stories. For example, through his Tarzan stories, Burroughs inadvertently told a story of the blatant and virulent racism that was common in his native United States during his lifetime. Practically all our fictional novels and stories, and our films illustrate one or more values.
Turning to true stories, biographies of famous and not-so-famous people illustrate many of our values. Biographies on Einstein, Hawking, Newton, and others flesh out the concept of genius. Edison’s biographies, and Tesla’s, illustrate inventiveness. Biographies of George Washington illustrate outstanding leadership qualities. Biographies of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, illustrate creativity in music; biographies of Rembrandt, Monet, van Gogh, and Picasso illustrate creativity in art. Each of these biographies also illustrates other values, through the lives of fascinating people. Biographies of Roget describe how someone can be devoted to one undertaking. Practically every value has been illustrated by someone’s biography or autobiography.
As a few examples, we have histories of the prehistoric cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, and the digital revolution. In science, we have histories of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, astronomy, cosmology, computers, and neurosciences. In the arts, we have histories of the novel, the short story, theatre, film, food, and perfume.
We have ancient histories, and histories from the Classical, medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Romantic, modern, and contemporary eras; histories of Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and Central America, and histories of China, Japan, Korea, Russia, India, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and essentially every nation. We have histories of indigenous peoples and cities. In economics, we have histories of feudalism, mercantilism, capitalism, and socialism. In politics and government, we have histories of monarchy, autocracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, communism, republicanism, and democracy.
In the West, we have histories of music from the early (medieval), Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, and Contemporary eras; and histories of the blues, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop. In jazz alone, we have Dixieland, swing, big band, cool jazz, be-bop, funk, avant-garde and free jazz.
In the visual arts, we have histories of ancient classical art, medieval art, Renaissance art, Baroque art, neoclassical art, Romantic art, modern art, and contemporary art. In Europe, the visual arts evolved through realism, pointillism, expressionism, impressionism, neo-impressionism, post-impressionism, rococo, cubism, Bauhaus, abstract art, symbolism, avant-garde, art deco, art nouveau, minimalism, futurism, and surrealism.
Every bit of this tells a part of our story; most of the histories illustrate and clarify something about our values. This is our story.
If this chapter is not long enough for you, then open the links, and have a party. Carefully reading, i.e., studying, everything that is linked here would take many lifetimes. I am confident that this brief essay makes the point.
Real
True Narratives
- Michael Schmidt, The Novel: A Biography (Belknap Press, 2014): “What vindicates Schmidt’s willful stopping of his ears to the irrelevant chatter of academic scholarship is that he himself reads so intelligently and writes so pungently.”
- Philip Pullman, Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018): “Pullman has an oversize portion of . . . infectious energy . . . to judge by ‘Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling,’ . . . Taken in long swigs, ‘Daemon Voices’ can be overwhelming, a torrent of enthusiasm for science, art, music and literature.”
- Martin Puchner, The Written Word: The Power of Stories to Shape People The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, and Civilization (Random House, 2017): “We are what we read. ‘The Written World’ makes this grand assertion on the basis of a set of theses. Storytelling is as human as breathing. When fabulation intersected with writing, stories were empowered to propagate themselves in society and around the world as civilization-forming ‘foundational texts.’”
- Abigail Williams, The Social Life of Books: Reading Together in the Eighteenth-Century Home (Yale University Press, 2017): “Williams . . . is to be congratulated on a book, like Puchner’s, that makes us think, while reading, about what reading is.”
- Edwin Frank, Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2024): “Having closely examined over 30 novels in a spirit of heady intoxication, he tacks on a list of 90-plus he might have included, as if the bar-car porter were cutting him off.”
Joseph Campbell brilliantly illustrated the power of narratives in his study of religious myths. Whether the stories were real or not, the storytelling was.
- The Power of Myth (Turtleback, 1991).
- A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake: Unlocking Joyce’s Masterwork (1944).
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).
- The Masks of God, Volume 1: Primitive Mythology (Viking, 1959).
- The Masks of God, Volume 2: Oriental Mythology (Viking, 1962).
- The Masks of God, Volume 3: Occidental Mythology (Viking, 1964).
- The Masks of God, Volume 4: Creative Mythology (Viking, 1968).
- Myths to Live By (Viking, 1972).
- Transformations of Myth Through Time (HarperCollins, 1990).
- Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth (New World Library, 2015).
- The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (New World Press, 2003).
- Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (New World Library, 2004).
- Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (New World Library, 2013).
- The Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance (New World Library, 2017).
“Pointillism history” (Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy): compelling true-story-telling
- Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (Henry Holt & Company, 2002).
- Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Henry Holt & Company, 2007).
- Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (Henry Holt & Company, 2013).
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
One time Tom sent a boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan (which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called it, and kill the lot and scoop the things. He said we must slick up our swords and guns, and get ready. He never could go after even a turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more than what they was before. I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill. But there warn't no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class at that. We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so. He said there was loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, and elephants and things. I said, why couldn't we see them, then? He said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I would know without asking. He said it was all done by enchantment. He said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the magicians. Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. [Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1906), Chapter III, “We Ambuscade the A-rabs”.]
Novels:
- Patrick Flanery, I Am No One: A Novel (Tim Duggan Books, 2016): “. . . we find a writer standing on the border between the immediate and the allegorical, the personal and the political, the thriller and the novel of ideas, glancing in several directions at once. It raises the enticing question of where Flanery’s bold imagination will choose to transport us to next.”
- Rudy Namdar, The Ruined House: A Novel (Harper, 2017): “. . . a masterpiece of modern religious literature, exactly as deep, disturbing and unresolved as is necessary to remind us, habituated as we are to the shallows of contemporary Jewish life, what still lurks beneath — primitive, raw and exacting.”
- Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible: A Novel (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020): in this novel about our foundational myths, the title is “a clever self-undercutting that suggests an all-encompassing theory of everything while also promising simplicity, reduced scale, even a certain bowdlerizing.”
- Guzel Yakhina, A Volga Tale: A Novel (2021): “Recalling the comfort he once took in folk tales, Bach contrives to make a living writing a 'new folklore' for the Comrade Party Organizer who has arrived to mold the villagers into paragons of socialist virtue.”
From the dark side: whoever controls the past controls the future.
- Gina Apostol, Insurrecto: A Novel (Soho Press, 2018): “The novel’s structure reflects how history comes at us in scattered shards, the way voices are amplified or silenced, story lines invented or forgotten.”
- Alix E. Harrow, The Everlasting: A Novel (Tor Books, 2025), is “a book about storytelling, and how nationalism cannot exist without the support of a well-told myth.”
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
We use music to tell our stories, and create our stories internally. All of our music tells some part of our story. Even composers such as Edward Elgar, who strongly disdained “programme music”, drew inspiration for their compositions from their experiences and observations. That should be apparent in every musical work referenced in this book. This section will focus on works in which the composer made the narrative aspect of the composition explicit.
Compositions:
- Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (Don Quixote at the Duchess') (approx. 60’) (list of recorded performances): This ballet is a comic version of the Cervantes’ Don Quixote story.
- Roberto Gerhard, Don Quixote (1941, rev. 1949) (approx. 42’), ballet
- Ludwig Minkus, Don Quixote (1869), ballet.
- Richard Strauss, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), Op. 28, TrV 171 (1895) (approx. 14-16’) (list of recorded performances), “chronicles in music the misadventures and pranks of (a) peasant folk hero”.
- Alfred Schnittke composed a wealth of film music, represented on the Capriccio label, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, and Volume 5.
- Kamran Ince, Symphony No. 5, "Galatasaray" (2005) (approx. 33’). This is an oratorio, or choral symphony, about a Turkish soccer team. Despite the seeming oddity of the real-life themes, the work is brilliant and haunting.
- Gabriela Lena Frank, Quijotadas for String Quartet (2007): “Widely considered the birth of the modern novel, this tale satirizes post-Colonial Spain by relating the story of a middle-aged lesser nobleman who undertakes absurd adventures . . .” [the composer]
- Joseph Holbrooke, Piano Concerto No. 1, "The Song of Gwyn ap Nudd", Op. 52 (1908, rev. 1923) (approx. 30-34’), a romantic fairy tale: “What it lacks in distinction it makes up for in vivid narrative and corny gestures. It just needs a film to go with it.”
- Constant Lambert’s ballet Tiresias (1951) presents a curious story about a hero who is a man in the first and third acts, and a woman in the second. Here is the suite.
- Lambert’s ballet Pomona (1927) (approx. 21’) tells of a goddess of fruits.
- John Foulds, Three Mantras, Op. 61b (1921-1930) (approx. 26’): drawn from the Sanskrit idea of the incarnation of a god
- Adolphe Biarent, Contes D'Orient (Tales of the Orient) (1909) (approx. 38’)
- Jørgen Bentzon, Racconti (1935-1949): the word “racconti” means “tales”.
- Antonín Dvořák, The Water Goblin, Op. 107, B. 195 (1896) (approx. 20-22’) (list of recorded performances), based on this Czech poem
- Dvořák, The Noonday Witch, Op. 108, B. 198 (1896) (approx. 14-16’) (list of recorded performances), based on this poem, also by Erben
- Hugo Alfvén, film music: En Bygdesaga (A Country Tale), Op. 53; Synnøve Solbakken, Op. 50; Berga-Kungen (The Mountain King), Op. 37
- Grace Williams, 4 Illustrations for the Legend of Rhiannon (1939) (approx. 27’): “Grace Williams chose as her subject for this four-movement work an old legend from the Mabinogion, the earliest collection of Welsh prose stories.”
- William Walton, film music: Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (1944); Hamlet: A Shakespeare Scenario (1947-48); Richard III: A Shakespeare Scenario (1955)
- Rued Langgaard, Symphony No. 9, “Fra Dronning Dagmars by” (From Queen Dagmar’s City), BVN 283 (1942) (approx. 21-23’) – based on a tune from a popular ballad
- Langgaard, Symphony No. 11, “Ixion”, BVN 303 (1944-1945) (approx. 6’) is based on a story of a Greek mythological figure.
- Karol Szymanowski, Mythes (Myths), M. 29, Op. 30 (1915) (approx. 19-22’) (list of recorded performances): “Szymanowski borrowed the titles of the cycle's three miniatures from Greek mythology. The mood of the fantastic visions - of the nymph Arethusa, turned into a stream, fleeing from Alpheus; of Narcissus, in love with his reflection in the pool, turned into a flower; of the dancing dryads and Pan playing his pipes - is achieved not only with a sophisticated and at times extraordinarily complicated harmony . . .”
- Don Gillis soundtracks, for film and television series
- Tan Dun, Film Music Sonata (approx. 16-17’), segments of the four movements sound remarkably like mainstream American film music.
- Jerod Tate, Winter Moons (1992) (approx. 37-40’) “is a ballet based upon American Indian legends from the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains. It is in four movements and is performed with a live storyteller to guide the audience thought the different legends. The title of the ballet is derived from the idea that American Indian stories are best told during the full moons of the wintertime.” Here is a presentation of the ballet.
- Carlos Smith, “Tales - A Folklore Symphony” (2021) (approx. 23’) “is a four-movement piece for orchestra that explores African American folklore as well as Afrofuturist stories.”
- Thomas de Hartmann, Symphonie-Poème No. 3, Op. 85 (1953) (approx. 36’), “appears to have been inspired by Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky’s novel V lesakh (‘In the Forests’) . . . There is The Swamp Girl, which delivers a powerfully atmospheric and darkly brooding first movement. This is followed by the animated but also threatening tale of Stroka (The Wicked Fly); that one fly that, from a hot summer swarm, targets and harasses a beast such as a deer or a horse until they collapse from exhaustion. The third and final movement concerns the legend of Radoniza (The Feast of Spring) with its ‘joyful songs and captivating dances’ . . .”
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold, film music: The Sea Hawk; The Prince and the Pauper; Elizabeth and Essex; The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Jerry Goldsmith, music for the film “The Secret of NIMH” and other films
- Amazing stories
Albums:
- Richard Baratta, “Music in Film: The Reel Deal” (2020) (67’): a jazz album that tells the story of telling the story
- Kenneth Woods, English Symphony Orchestra and narrators, “Fiddles, Forests and Fowl Fables” (2021) (82’), five new musical narratives for children
- ThirdEye Ensemble, “Storylines Crossing” (2018) (67’): “The pieces are inspired by a wide variety of subjects, including: the Vietnam War; the infamous Attica Prison riots; the development of a groovy bass line; and the antics of catnip-fueled cats.”
- Vicente Archer, “Short Stories” (2023) (49’): “Accompanied on what is technically his debut, fellow Scofield and Payton alum, drummer Bill Stewart and ever curious pianist Gerald Clayton bring to these stories a captivating, unified narrative.”
- Ambrose Akinmusire, “Beauty Is Enough” (2023) (49’): “. . . there is a high degree of technical mastery, but, tellingly, it underpins a profound and often engrossing sense of narrative.”
- Mary Elizabeth Bowden, “Storyteller: Contemporary Concertos for Trumpet” (2024) (68’)
- Ala.Ni, “Sunshine Music” (2025) (36’) “acts as a welcome travelogue, providing light through music.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Harry Chapin, “Cat’s in the Cradle” (lyrics)
- Harry Chapin, “Taxi” (lyrics)
- Lord Huron, “The Night We Met” (lyrics)
- Marianne Faithfull, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” (lyrics)
- Johnny Cash, “A Boy Named Sue” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Douglas Crockwell, The Storyteller
- Vittorio Reggianini, The Storyteller
- Vittorio Reggianini, A Captive Audience
- Scott Gustafson, The Storyteller
- Franz Defregger, Storytelling
Film and Stage
- The Grand Budapest Hotel, telling a story largely through visual images
- The Stories We Tell, about a woman who drew the attention of everyone around her
