Why I am Fascinated by Stories
A Musing
What are stories anyway? A series of events that lead somewhere? Actions of characters that lead to consequences? When and where do they begin and when do they end, if ever they do? I am not sure.
The distinction between life and stories has been quite blurry to me since I was a child. I have always imagined myself to be a protagonist; imagined myself living in a fantasy that serves only to drive me towards something great, something of massive importance. I think that is the basis for my love for stories. I have lived for them. It is not so hard to see the reason, when I look back. But to find my reason, I realize, I have had to work for almost the entirety of the twenty-one or so years that I have lived.
Stories have been with humankind since the origin. Humankind lives on stories, and what would you and I be, if not human? But what has recently gotten me fascinated are the way they are told. You see, stories lie in anything and everything we do, or say. Our history runs as a narrative. Our civilizations tell stories, and so do our cultures in the form of myths and legends. There lies a narratological aspect to each and everything that human kind does, generally put. That, I think tells us a lot about our own selves. We know ourselves better by knowing what we think, which are represented in the stories we ultimately end up telling.
This fascination, although had remained in me since long, it grew to be deeper when I discovered the tellers of stories, that are William Shakespeare, H. P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman. While the Bard of Avon did what he did best, which is laugh with his people, and frighten them with a display of tragic possibilities, Gaiman brought the former to me in more chewable chunks as Lovecraft did the latter. The stories they tell explore what lies within, and has been since the primordial times. They realized the human need for self exploration through the means of their surroundings.
But this recent infatuation was not brought on simply by these authors, rather it was due something that has stayed with me for so long now. The ritual of Danda Nacha, a ritual quite well known around the state of Odisha in India, did it for me. It is a ritual practised by the people of my district wbich involves a form of worship that combines punishment for purification and also follows the scheme of the "Hindu" (this word, I find really problematic, hence the quotes; I will get to it during another one of my pieces) funeral rites. It is interesting because I had been exposed to the practice, but not to its stories. There are multiple stories told through it, and lived through it. It being practised by numerous troupes throughout the district makes it quite diverse in itself, because each troupe follows a different story out of the Shiva Purana or the Devi Purana. I did my research on it, and took it upon myself to bring it to the world. My current research can be found at www.dandanataodisha.wordpress.com with more to follow soon.
Knowing about the fact that humans are creatures of stories and actually experiencing it are completely different from each other. I am now convinced that to understand anything related to our species, we must understand the stories that are told. But to satisfy my fascinated self and to drive myself further into the study of narratives, I will need to know the technicalities of it. When I do, I will hopefully be able to put it into simpler words for you too.
Until next time.
