Storytelling, old and new

On one of my Linked In feeds yesterday, I read about how technology is reshaping storytelling.  A published author/game developer wrote about three recent trends, including immersive fiction (eg a Zombie app where you literally run from imaginary zombies, while the app tracks you GPS and gives you fictional items to pick up at real locations), social fiction (eg a crowdsourced novel that shapes public tweets into a murder mystery), and reader's choice (eg a gaming type platform that lets you pick outcomes as you move through the story).  I was struck by how much of an influence gaming - something I have zero interest or experience in - now has on popular culture.  I also wondered about how much the new formats would shape fiction itself - would there be a new genre to emerge or would it be the same old tropes??

The same day, I read  a Robert Fulford column in the National Post  about a Kafka biography.  At the end he relates a sweet  anecdote, also about the power of storytelling:

In [Dora Diament, his wife's] memoirs she told a story that’s become a favourite of Kafka lore. They were walking in a park when they came upon a little girl who was crying. When Kafka asked what was wrong, she said she had lost her doll.

No, Kafka said, the doll wasn’t lost, she had just gone away on a journey. “I know because she sent me a letter.” The girl, suspicious, asked if he had it with him. He said it was at home but he would bring it tomorrow. That night, Diamant said, he worked on the letter as seriously as if it were a story for publication. The next day the girl was waiting in the park and Kafka read it to her. The doll wrote that she needed a change, which began a playful little project for Kafka. Every day for three weeks he wrote a letter, until finally the doll announced that she was getting married and probably wouldn’t be in touch again. As Diamant wrote, Kafka resolved the girl’s disappointment through storytelling, the most effective way he knew of bringing order into the world.

The significant thing here is the bringing order part.  The little girl has no control over her world or even the story, unlike the gamers.  However, this story is powerful for her because it is about her and her experience.  The effectiveness depends on her choosing to accept Kafka's premise and the doll's outcome.  In a similar way, in a world of constant stimulation, technology oriented audiences want to have a say in their stories, feel like they could manage a horror situation, connect with their neighbours in writing about a location they recognize, or have a story with an emotional resonance for them.

Personally, as much as I complain about my book club's picks that are populated by annoying characters, I still respect the journey a novelist takes me on.  Besides which, I'm way too indecisive to ever enjoy anything where I had to do more than simply choose whether or not to finish!

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