I like to think of myself as a storyteller.
That is the only way to put it, and it sucks, because there’s no way that you can read that and not think that I’m either acting too big for my britches or else just some confused hipster who can’t tell a real story from a soundbite on Youtube. I hope that I am neither, but then that’s the best/worst part about blogging; no one can really tell if I am or not, and I don’t need to tell them.
I digress. The point is not about how the word “storyteller” sounds to anyone who has heard it used too frequently in the wrong context. The point is that it summarizes how I interact with the world of storytelling mediums. A lot of people make a lot of money by narrowing their focus to just one medium; I haven’t made it that far. I have not narrowed my focus, and I have made no money. Yet.
I’m a storyteller. I try to tell stories. It’s that simple. While I am trying to narrow my focus in order that I might tell my stories better, I am left with the capacity to do otherwise. To be a storyteller is to be a sort of artistic stem cell that will later be differentiated into a writer, musician, filmmaker, illustrator, podcaster, journalist, or MMA fighter. The learning process and the will of God are molding me into one of these things, but as I am not yet one of these things, I will take the title of storyteller and live it out as best I can.
So what stories do I tell? What stories do I care about?
As a Christian, this is a far more significant question than the blog post setting of this discussion suggests.
Story is the lifeblood of the created world. It is how this world was formed, how the Creator of this world interacts with it, and it is how He has revealed the world to us. His work is the highest artistry, and every artist (and thus every storyteller) must strive to imitate what He has done through their own creations, despite the inevitability of them falling short of His own designs, for that is what He has made them for. We examine his creation, and through our works we endeavor to translate it into something new, that the glory of our God may be multiplied.
Poetry is the start, the act of translating a thing into well-balanced words. Prose follows soon after. The potential of poetry is transformed into motion and action, a story. Multiple poems join together in a single continuous work. Some things in this world require a medium distinct from words to be more fully described. The harmonies and tones of music are meant for this. Other things require images rather than sounds to capture the same, and thus we have galleries upon galleries of art. In film, you find aspects of all of these things in concert. The goal in film is story, same as the others, but it must pull from the aspects of all others in a dramatic balancing act. What is emphasized is what the film is identified with. Heck, even video games do this. Their stories rely on the player finding a compelling challenge in what they have to offer. The rest they generally steal from the medium of film, because at the end of the day, it is still a game, with a bit of story added on.
As I see it, this is how stories work within their mediums. I suppose not everyone agrees with this, or else the world of creative criticism would be a lot smaller and a lot simpler. Within Christianity, the world of critics is somewhat polarizing. For some, any display of work connected with naked people or the f-word results in the condemnation of the work. For others this means nothing at all. Either way, the Christian legality of the work and the people who like it is held under scrutiny. The wisest people I have talked to discuss the subject in terms of “wisdom issues,” which means that there are objective lines and objectively good and bad stories. Ultimately, however, it comes down to the individual, who in the pursuit of sanctification and the glory of God, must make a decision based on biblical wisdom and a knowledge of themselves as to what stories are good and bad for them.
This sounds a bit like a preference-based, whatever-floats-your-goat mentality, but wisdom requires a love of what God loves, which means that if we’re being wise, most of Christians should end up on the same page about most things. We will be called to account for every one of our actions in this life, and there is no good reason to be imbibing any story, unless by doing so we grow in our understanding of the world, that we may serve His kingdom with a sharper mind and a deepened heart.
Those stories I consider good, I imitate. I want to tell true stories in the sense that they communicate truth, whether they take place in this world or not. I want to tell stories that take the world at face value and transform it into something priceless. I want to take the mundane and made it strange and wonderful. I want my characters to be laid to waste at the majesty of it all. I want my life to be an exploration of the many-layered storyscape where our significance has nothing to do with what we did, but about what God did for us.
It’s a pretty lofty goal for a guy who still doesn’t quite know what exactly he plans to do with these ideas, but I hope it’s enough for a start. All that I create will fall short of anything that my Creator has made or done. But then how else could we find true glory in Him?
Now as that is really the end of the matter, and I want to avoid making unsubstantiated theological claims, I think I shall stop there.
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