Thanks again to Red Rocker for this post and the last one on World Storytelling Day

As promised, here is a chance to celebrate World Storytelling Day by recounting stories you’ve heard.
Think of a story you’ve heard. It might have been as a child – the stories we hear as children can leave the most lasting impression. It might be a fable or a fairy tale. Or a folk tale. It might have been a story you heard when you were older. It might be something that actually happened to someone. Or an urban myth. It might even be a tall-tale: just make sure it’s a convincing one.

It might also be something that happened to you, or to someone you know, that you think would make a good tale. That wouldn’t strictly meet the definition of being part of an oral tradition, but we’re not purists here. We just want to hear some good stories.

Here are some rules:
You can start “telling” your story anytime after the clock hits midnight (12 am) on March 20th in your time zone. For those who get confused, as I do: 12 am on March 20th is the minute that follows 11:59 pm on March 19th. You can “tell” as many stories as you would like – and the more the merrier – until the clock hits midnight the next day in your time zone.

Ideally, the stories you tell should be stories you’ve heard. Or stories of something that happened to you or someone you know. But if you’ve got a really good story that you read somewhere, you can tell us in your own words. That, I think, is the most important part of this: the story has to be in your own words.

A story which you’ve previously written to be read does not qualify. As much as others might be interested in reading it, the art of writing a story is different from the art of telling it. Yes, I know that we’re actually writing here, but a blog has some of the same spontaneity and directness as oral communication, and that’s what we’re going for: we would like to hear you tell us a story in your own authentic voice.

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A special thanks to Red Rocker for sending this post to me!

Humans developed complex language somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. It might have happened gradually – or very quickly. Shortly thereafter, the first storyteller entertained the tribe around the fire by telling stories about the day’s hunt. Or maybe the first storyteller was a traveler, bringing news about the tribe who lived on the other side of the mountain.  The oldest such story we know about is the epic of Gilgamesh, a king of Sumeria who lived almost 3,000 years ago.  The epic tells of the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, of the death of Enkidu,  of the grief of Gilgamesh, and his subsequent quest for the secret of eternal life.

This is how Gilgamesh weeps for his friend, Enkidu:

“How can I rest, how can I be at peace? Despair is in my heart. What my brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead. Because I am afraid of death I will go as best I can to find Utnapishtim whom they call the Faraway, for he has entered the assembly of the gods.’

And this is the answer he hears:

“Gilgamesh, what you seek you will never find. For when the Gods created Man they let death be his lot, eternal life they withheld”.

Sound familiar at all?

Storytelling never went out of style. But with the advent of paper and the printing press and mass literacy, storytellers were not in as much demand. Nowadays, we also have newspapers, the radio, the movies, television, not to mention the internet and ipods and e-books and the latest of all, the Tablet. Ironic that, given how Gilgamesh also came to us on a set of tablets – ones made of clay.  But the fascination of listening to the storyteller has never gone out of style. At bedtime, in a classroom, in a pub, around the campfire, we still perk up our ears when we hear the words “Here is a story.”

In recognition of the tradition of oral storytelling, the Swedes came up with something they called Alla berättares dag (All storytellers day), a national day for storytelling. The idea took hold in other countries, so that nowadays each year the March Equinox,  March 20^th,  is known as World Storytelling Day. According to Wikipedia:

On World Storytelling Day, as many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languagesand at as many places as possible, during the same day and night.

My thought was, we here at the Hog’s Head are united by our love of  one story in particular, and of stories in general. Why not celebrate Storytelling Day at our virtual pub by telling each other stories? In other words, why not have our own storytelling marathon?

Of course our stories would be in electronic text form because we can’t talk to one another (at least, not yet). But except for that, they should parallel the intent of Storytelling day as much as possible. They should be stories we’ve heard, not read about. They should be stories we’ve heard from real people – not the television, or movies. Audiobooks are  tempting, but for this event, let’s exclude them. We want to try to recreate the oral tradition, as much as possible.

Timing is crucial. We’ll set up the post for the marathon on March 19^th. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on March 20^th in your time zone, you’re free to start telling us a story. As long as it’s still March 20^th in  your time zone, you can keep adding stories. The more of us join in, the more fun it will be.

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Select you favourite game from the poll on the right and let us know why.
If you have any adventures or characters you’d like to share go right ahead.

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I saw a comment over at Hogwarts Professor which reminded me of another article I had seen on the proclivities of people to compare the next big thing with Harry Potter.  The quote at HogPro was in regard to the Percy Jackson series.  The quote  of which it reminded me was from a young girl’s letter to the New York Times thanking them for not comparing any of the children’s fantasies on their children’s book issue of November 8, 2009 to Harry Potter.  I provide links to both quotes here for your perusal and thoughts.  I personally think they make a lot of sense and a very nice corrective to a lot of the hype that gets thrown around in the publishing world.

The first one is from The Torch Online, quoting the girl’s letter to the Times.  The original post may be found here.

The second is from the commenter over at HogPro named Lynn, specifically the third paragraph of her comment.

Enjoy!

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If you donated during the HPA and Leaky Helping Haiti Heal campaign, you can watch the live drawing of prizes online tonight! The event raised well over $100 million for Haiti relief efforts.

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Just a reminder that the Potter Pundits will be appearing live tonight, March 6, 2010, at Pace University in the NYC area.  For those who can’t make it in person (and I suspect that’s many of us), the good news is that Pottercast will be offering a livestream of the event.  You can find the livestream here.  The event starts at 7PM Eastern Standard Time.  Tune in to hear the Potter Pundits–Travis Prinzi, John Granger, and James Thomas–discuss Harry Potter as great literature!

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To die among friends. Can a man ask more? Can the world offer less? Who wants to live ’till the last bottle is empty?

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Please go HERE to comment or start your own discussion topics. Or, give us some speculations regarding Mockingjay Book 3 of The Hunger Games

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Saw a very interesting article the other day over on Techdirt regarding a teenager who remixed and or plagiarized the works of others into a best selling book which is up for a prestigious prize in Germany.  I’ll share some passages from the Techdirt article and then a few brief quotes from a New York Times story and leave you to make of it what you will.  Anyway, from the Techdirt article:

“Here’s a story that will get traditionalists up in arms about “stealing” and “laziness,” but they’ll all be missing the point. We’ve see for decades how remix culture works in music. The ability to take the works of someone else, mix them up with others, change them around and create something new and powerful, is a wonderful expression of culture, that shows how artistic culture is often about shared experiences and sharing works of art. But what about in the literary world?”

And here from the New York Times article:

“Ms. Hegemann finds herself in the middle of a collision — if not road kill exactly — between the staid, literary establishment in a country that venerates writers from Goethe to Mann to Grass, and the Berlin youth culture of D.J.’s and artists that sample freely and thereby breathe creativity into old forms.”

And also:

“Although Ms. Hegemann has apologized for not being more open about her sources, she has also defended herself as the representative of a different generation, one that freely mixes and matches from the whirring flood of information across new and old media, to create something new. “There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity…”

Well, those quotes by themselves should be enough to generate some discussion but check out the full articles.  Interesting reading.  Have fun!

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Lots of Harry Potter in the news recently. Let’s go through a few important stories.

J.K. Rowling Sued for Plagiarism

Rowling and Bloomsbury are being sued; the charge is plagiarizing a story that J.K. Rowling says she’d never heard of before the first accusations in 2004. The supposed source material is the Adrian Jacobs’ book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard. Rowling responds:

“I am saddened that yet another claim has been made that I have taken material from another source to write Harry. The fact is I had never heard of the author or the book before the first accusation by those connected to the author’s estate in 2004; I have certainly never read the book.  The claims that are made are not only unfounded but absurd and I am disappointed that I, and my U.K. publisher Bloomsbury, are put in a position to have to defend ourselves.”

I’ve said before in a podcast that it’s easier than one thinks to write stories that are similar to what someone else has written – without ever having read the story. I once began outlining a seven-book series of fantasy fiction, only to find that many of my key ideas already existed in Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea books.

Infinitus Extends Formal Programming Submission Deadline

Interested in presenting a paper, joining a panel discussion, or running a workshop at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this summer? Infinitus is happening in Orlando July 15-18, and you can be part of it. The deadline for submitting a proposal has been extended to February 28, so get yours in!

Also, be sure to read the most recent issue of Infinitum, the newsletter of Infinitus.

Mockingbird NYC Discovers Rowling’s Commencement Speech

A blog I’ve been following for some time (which, by the way, has nothing to do with mockingjays or The Hunger Games) recently discovered J.K. Rowling’s wonderful commencement speech at Harvard. It’s a great reminder of a great speech. Thanks to DZ for mentioning my work in the comments!

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