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beccaelizabethStories are fun. This is easy to notice. And since a life that is fun is a pretty good goal, this seems sufficient reason for stories. But then the studying of stories would be about making them more fun. Which it isn't, only.
Stories are important. They're the guidebooks to the dark and the light. They're why we don't have to touch the electric fence. They tell us who to be and how. And, and this is where they get the most power, mostly we don't notice. Stories are full edge to edge with 'should' and 'good' and also 'evil' with particular faces and general characteristics and danger and death and all that. And because they're fun, they're like food - you can swallow all sorts of stuff, and not really notice what's in it. And some of it is bad for you. And a lot of it is bad for others.
Some stories encourage us to be excellent to each other. Some do the other thing. There are Dalek stories out there, the kind they tell themselves, the sort that says we are supreme and all lesser beings must serve or die. The sort that labels difference a threat and says there's only one true way. And people swallow those stories, and think the story's should is true, and act on them. Not just one story one time, but little by little, like getting fat off one extra sweet a day. But the other stories can be like dancing, like the kind of exercise that doesn't feel like exercise but you end up having fun, feeling better, and being better off as well. Little bit every time, and you can do more and feel good about it. Those are the stories that say everyone is pretty good, can do great things, can help each other and live. And sometimes they're the sport or running stories, where you can see full well that it's work but it helps anyway, like the stories that tell you that everyone can be pretty bad too, and you always have to watch yourself. Nobody supreme. Everyone that bit mixed up and wobbly. Important to notice or there's being Dalek-stupid and never seeing the problems coming.
Academic tools, studying things in class, they're there to pull the stories apart and see what they're saying underneath. See what power structures are built into them, who they say is supreme, if they admit the possibility of flaws, if difference is celebrated or condemned. There's a kind of fun available, the sort that you get from mastery of tools and knowledge and figuring things out. Quiz game fun. It tries to pull all the hidden things out to look at them. Which is difficult, because usually there's still something hiding, like why we think this difference is important and not that one we haven't thought of yet. Which is why making it a cumulative toolkit, building on the work of others, is important - some scholars saw class but not gender, some saw race but not disability, some will see things that aren't in the books yet.
And then, once we've seen these things, we can go back to the stories. And we can make them fun, and exciting, and scary. And we can try and make sure they're the sort of stories that tell us how to live the life we'd want to be in, or at least why.
And then we can go off and live them.
Stories are important. They're the guidebooks to the dark and the light. They're why we don't have to touch the electric fence. They tell us who to be and how. And, and this is where they get the most power, mostly we don't notice. Stories are full edge to edge with 'should' and 'good' and also 'evil' with particular faces and general characteristics and danger and death and all that. And because they're fun, they're like food - you can swallow all sorts of stuff, and not really notice what's in it. And some of it is bad for you. And a lot of it is bad for others.
Some stories encourage us to be excellent to each other. Some do the other thing. There are Dalek stories out there, the kind they tell themselves, the sort that says we are supreme and all lesser beings must serve or die. The sort that labels difference a threat and says there's only one true way. And people swallow those stories, and think the story's should is true, and act on them. Not just one story one time, but little by little, like getting fat off one extra sweet a day. But the other stories can be like dancing, like the kind of exercise that doesn't feel like exercise but you end up having fun, feeling better, and being better off as well. Little bit every time, and you can do more and feel good about it. Those are the stories that say everyone is pretty good, can do great things, can help each other and live. And sometimes they're the sport or running stories, where you can see full well that it's work but it helps anyway, like the stories that tell you that everyone can be pretty bad too, and you always have to watch yourself. Nobody supreme. Everyone that bit mixed up and wobbly. Important to notice or there's being Dalek-stupid and never seeing the problems coming.
Academic tools, studying things in class, they're there to pull the stories apart and see what they're saying underneath. See what power structures are built into them, who they say is supreme, if they admit the possibility of flaws, if difference is celebrated or condemned. There's a kind of fun available, the sort that you get from mastery of tools and knowledge and figuring things out. Quiz game fun. It tries to pull all the hidden things out to look at them. Which is difficult, because usually there's still something hiding, like why we think this difference is important and not that one we haven't thought of yet. Which is why making it a cumulative toolkit, building on the work of others, is important - some scholars saw class but not gender, some saw race but not disability, some will see things that aren't in the books yet.
And then, once we've seen these things, we can go back to the stories. And we can make them fun, and exciting, and scary. And we can try and make sure they're the sort of stories that tell us how to live the life we'd want to be in, or at least why.
And then we can go off and live them.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-19 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-19 07:02 pm (UTC)