Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Enduring Power:
What makes a story timeless and relevant for numerous generations? What is exactly the durability factor at play here? Why do some stories survive the test of time and others depart into oblivion?
Perhaps the answers are to be sought in the defining qualities of a story such as theme, characters and entertainment value, and their relevance in time.
Let's talk about theme -- that is, the underlying message in a story derived from the character's problems and the way they deal with them. What is the story saying? And how important is it in the context of general human and social dilemmas? Is it universal enough to transcend the particular time and place the story was created in? Ah, theme... A tricky one to get right. After all, the times they are a changin' and what values seem important today may not necessarily be so tomorrow.
You may say that the majority of stories, including the ones that remain relevant through time, are imbued with the values of their particular period and culture. Yes, in that sense every story is an historical document of specific social values, ideas and manners from a singular cultural timeframe. The relevancy of a theme is defined by its central values. They are to be found at the core of a story, beneath what's on the surface or the constraints of temporary fashionable ideas and trends. If those central values, initially relevant within the context of their cultural period environment, continue to be relevant with time, the theme that embodies them does so too. The universality of the central values of a theme determine the universality of the theme itself.
Then there is the relevance of the characters in the story through time. Characters are the conducting agents of the story. In other words, we the audience experience the story through the actions and points of views of various characters. In essence, characters are the vessels carrying us through the uncharted territory of the story universe.
Archetypal characters transcend current trends by tapping into universal traits that have permanence in the values they represent. They are characters that have staying power and relevance in time. Characters who can be reinvented and rediscovered by future generations. These characters have truth about them, about who we are and about our essential problems as social beings. Some archetypal characters fascinate us to such a degree that they eventually come to be viewed in the collective consciousness of society as iconic.
Now, let's look at the concept of the entertainment value of a story. This is the sugar coating on the pill (the pill sometimes being bitter and hard to swallow therefore in need to be made more agreeably digestible, or as Mary Poppins says "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"). The entertainment value is conveyed through the story's style and form. That is the particular way it is communicated in and it's essential nature, shape and structure. Style and form in contemporary context almost always embody trendiness or that which is currently fashionable and in demand.
Trendiness. Now there is a word that carries a load of negative connotations usually when used around artists. To artists it suggests lack of individual creative vision. The logic here is that when one is trendy one is following trends set by others, therefore not being truly original. One has to be careful around words like that... However, trendiness is necessary for a storyteller to be able speak the language of his or her contemporaries. It is the frequency of the storyteller's signal, so to speak. A storyteller's goal is to communicate a story to others. This can only be achieved if the storyteller is on the same frequency with the audience, or in other words, the story is communicated in a way the audience understands.
A trend is a cultural process of ideas that have been developing up to a point in the present, taking shape in this very moment -- right now, it is happening. It is a never-ending, shape-shifting process that is constantly reenergized by people taking it into new directions by setting new trends that follow the old ones. A new trend is always influenced by the trends that were there before it. It is practically impossible to avoid trends. Even the most original storytellers and artists have followed and understood their current cultural trends and used and modified them in ways to better fit their sensibilities and to set new trends in their turn.
But, a solely trendy story, full of entertainment values and lacking in quality in its thematic central values, is just what it is: naked, a passing trend, a sugar pill with no substantial core, a forgettable moment that will be replaced by the next trendy story out there. Ah, entertainment value... A pill needs its coating. But the coating needs the pill too.
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