The Storyteller vs. the Novelist: A Battle to the End?

"The storyteller takes what he tells from experience - his own or that reported by others. And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale. The novelist has isolated himself. The birthplace of the novel is the solitary individual, who is no longer able to express himself by giving examples of his most important concerns, is himself uncounseled,and cannot counsel others."
~Walter Benjamin, "The Storyteller"

Benjamin begins his essay by lamenting the decline in storytelling, brought about by our dying ability to exchange experiences. He says that "experience has fallen in value" and that as the years have moved forward, we have become poorer, not richer, in communicable experience. Interesting. How are we declining in experiences? We are living the same lives - longer, even - than our ancestors. We even have more knowledge of the rest of the world. We take communications classes now to improve said skills. And yet, according to Benjamin, those experiences - and the ability to communicate them if we have them - are dying rapidly. He further goes on to say that this decrease in communicability of experience means that we are losing the ability to seek counsel as readers/hearers or give counsel as writers/storytellers. Counsel and the wisdom it imparts are dying.

And the novelist perpetuates the continuance of this decline, as Benjamin throws in the shocking news that the novelist as the solitary individual is"no longer able to express himself by giving examples of his most important concerns, is himself uncounseled,and cannot counsel others." He seems to be saying that the novel - and its author - are not worth much.

Ah, but the dying breed of the storyteller. Now, he is the one we need. He has listened to the stories, has remembered them, and now tells those stories as the continuation of the grand story of life. And let's just admit it: oral literature is not highly regarded in our society. And even the written word is losing its audience. Good storytelling IS diminishing in our technological, fast-paced society.

Let's start with oral literature. At holidays, my family sits around the table and tells story after story about their past, their experiences, what made them who they are today. And I sit there fixed to their every word. I want to know the stories of their lives, the stories of generations past that I will never know. But that happens maybe three or four times out of the year, and I know for other families, it is even less than that. We have moved away from the family and into 60-hour-a-week jobs, movies, computers, and in effect, have lost much contact with other people, and even more with the stories of our elders. Stories used to be told around the fire at night, and those stories would be passed from generation to generation. Stories, legends, myths... they came down to us and we have internalized those stories until we don't even remember that they were from the storytellers of old, so much are they now part of our lives.

But as the storyteller (the familial/communal and the individual) diminished with the rise of technology, the novelist grew in stature. But how can the novelist not have counsel for others? How can he not express himself? How is the storyteller so far above the novelist for Benjamin? I am torn on this issue, and really don't think I agree with Benjamin here. Novelists and writers look at the world around them (their experiences and interactions with it) and put words to these. And with the dissemination of books now, their experiences - and their counsel - can be potentially shared with the entire world rather than just with one community. And in doing so, his experience and story - like that of the storyteller - also becomes the experience of those reading the tale. And yes, perhaps the novelist has isolated himself to write his text. But he has still lived in life and heard the stories and had experiences. And he stores them in his memory until he can write them out.

So, I think both oral storytellers and those storytellers of the written word both have wisdom to impart. But Benjamin may argue that the novel may have truth, but it is not continuing the greater story of society , as the novel must always be "new" if it is to be good, while the oral story builds upon legend and myth. Perhaps that is so, but perhaps also novelists are bringing new versions of the same story to their readers. Perhaps they too are continuing the greater story of a people, albeit a singular, individual one. Perhaps storyteller and novelist can remain side by side, telling different but profoundly similar tales of the story of humankind.

Now to work on reviving the art of reading in society...