Chapter 6Five Critical Story Themes
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."—Hannah Arendt
In the Beginning, There Were the Plots
We'll never know the first story, or the name of the first storyteller, or how many people he or she told the story to, or what it was about. It's possible, in fact, that the first story predates language, that it was traced with a stick in the mud or acted out rather than spoken. All we can know with any reasonable degree of certainty is that the story was one of humanity's earliest and most useful tools. Chipping stone allowed us to become better predators, harnessing fire allowed us to stay warm and safe, but stories let us remember the past, interpret the present, and dream ...
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