The Significance of Stories
Stories are really cool. Okay, I might be a bit biased, but hear me out.
Since the dawn of humanity, we have told stories. For a long time, our stories were our truth. We used them to explain away the things we couldn’t understand. It made the world a little less scary and unknowable to live in - or maybe it just made sense to us. As time went by we started developing science and philosophy, we learned what stars are and why they move in the sky, we learned why the seasons change and what lands lay over the horizon. But we still kept telling stories. It’s something ingrained in us. It’s one of the things that makes us human. For better or worse (mostly worse), even our news, something that should be objective fact, is presented to us in a way that follows a narrative.
Even now that we don’t need stories to fill in the blanks, so much of our society and culture is shaped by the stories we experience. Putting the matter of theism vs atheism itself aside, there’s no denying that entire religions are built around books full of stories. Those religions still shape huge amounts of culture, identity and even law in many places. This isn’t necessarily a good thing - it’s not necessarily bad in every instance either - but it certainly stands testament to the power of stories.
It’s not just religious stories that shape the socio-political landscape either. In Ancient Greece, dialogues written by Plato helped give rise to ideas that would go on to inspire the general shape of modern politics around the world. He certainly wasn’t the only writer who contributed either. In more modern times, George Orwell’s stories showed us how totalitarianism and authoritarianism function and made us fear such regimes. They showed us how a populace can be manipulated by populism and propaganda and controlled. Margaret Atwood’s stories like The Handmaid’s Tale, while also touching on some similar themes as Orwell, drew attention to the way women have been treated in society and still inspire a great deal of thought to this day. José Rizal’s works showed the world the injustices of colonialism, helped keep the fight for his culture alive and inspired revolutionaries.
Even science, something that in many ways took the place of stories, has often been inspired by fiction. The works of Jules Verne eventually inspired the creation of both the submarine and the helicopter. Two forms of transport and mobility that have had huge impacts on exploration, warfare, rescue and even tourism. H.G Wells inspired a lot of things, he was fairly prolific. But, perhaps most notably, War of the Worlds is credited as inspiring liquid-fueled rockets and, along with the works of other writers, inspired us to consider life on other worlds. We started to really think about not just alien intelligences that might be out there, but also the future expansion of humanity’s domain. Even the internet, an invention which has gone on to define the modern human existence, was inspired by a sci-fi story written by Arthur C. Clarke. The very medium I am using to share my own works of fiction and to wax poetic about how important stories are, was inspired by a story.
Stories don’t just shape cultures and societies though, they shape individuals too. I grew up on stories that espoused ideals of equality, friendship, loyalty and justice as well as independence, individuality, competition and drive. Obviously, my current day political and philosophical views aren’t just inspired by the books and shows I loved as a kid, but I think it would be silly to pretend there wasn’t an impact. It wasn’t just my views that were affected though. Looking at the stories I loved then - and those that I love now - it’s not hard to see that there’s been an impact on the stories I write either. Even as someone who strives to be my own person and not base my work on others, it’s impossible to completely separate my own creations from the stories I have consumed over the years.
This is hardly a phenomenon unique to me either. On Stories Across Borders, we talked at length about how the Inheritance Cycle that we grew up with was clearly heavily inspired by The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - granted, pretty much every fantasy story right up to gritty stuff like A Song of Ice and Fire was inspired by Tolkien - and Anne McAffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern (which I’m pretty sure I wrongly attributed to Ursula K. Le Guin). There’s also shades of the Earthsea books (actually written by Le Guin) in there and people have been drawing comparisons between Eragon and Star Wars since it came out in the early 2000s. This isn’t a bad thing, as we noted, it’s just how the human mind works, we take inspiration from those who came before us and put our own twists on the things that resonate with us. The entire formula of the hero's journey has existed since The Epic of Gilgamesh - literally the oldest written story we know of - and likely before then too.
It’s not just storytellers who are shaped by the media they experience either. In a more ironic example, a whole generation grew up on the Harry Potter novels and embraced the values of equality and openness that those books were built on. Now that same generation is taking J.K. Rowling, the writer of those books, to task for her anti-trans stance - at least in part because they learned the values she taught them.
Consider who you are today. Then think back to the books and movies you loved as a kid. Keep in mind the stories that resonated particularly strongly in more recent times. Chances are high that a lot of what you liked as a child contributed to shaping the stories that grip you today. It’s not particularly unlikely that both the stories of your childhood and of today have shaped both your worldview and interests.
I won’t claim that stories are everything. That might be a bit of an exaggeration and a touch conceited even for a lesser known creator like myself. But they are definitely important. Every aspect of human existence has been touched in some way by fiction and even the stories that exist just for entertainment and spectacle still have an impact on our culture.
In a sense, that’s why I write. I don’t necessarily want to achieve the fame that any of the people I’ve mentioned above have (although I certainly wouldn’t complain about having that kind of renown). But I do want to create things that make my audiences think about the ideas I’m expressing and feel things in the same way the stories I love make me think and feel. I doubt I’m alone in that. Actually, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say most storytellers feel that way. So even that is something inspired by stories.
Stories are just that cool.
