Modern Fiction by Firelight
"Literature -- an expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest."
Soon, these oral stories inspired visual
representations. Early people scratched
their stories in stonewalls in caves.
Later, these caverns replaced by monolithic stone constructions, again
adorned with tales from the endless creative depths of human
consciousness.
Born of this well of creative spirit, the rudimentary
foundations of written language were formed, and from this, stones gave way to
papyrus, and then modern paper. Gathered
around the campfire, carving in the flickering torchlight, writing under the
candlelight and lamplight, still people created and shared their stories.
In all of these mediums, human beings poured out their
collective dreams onto the page.
In the 20th century new storytelling technologies
were birthed into the industrial world.
The film projector poured light out over crowded theaters and soon one
creator’s dreams were the collective observations of audiences. From there, the sounds and voices of these
creations filled the air between the streams of photons and immersed movie
goers in imaginative and fanciful worlds flickering in hues of grey over the
silver screen.
The advent of color in motion pictures blurred the lines
between the creator and the audience, making images more lifelike and, when
needed, even more fantastic. But even as
the fires of industry burned brightest for storytellers, a movement arose to
bring the collected content of human creativity back to the tribe and family,
where it was born.
In 1900 at the World’s Fair, the first television was
introduced. In 1937, the first
television network was formed and by the 1960’s, the television was fast
becoming a household appliance.
Although early decades saw largely the expansion of
technology without true purpose, lending credence to expressions like
“boob-tube” and “idiot box” because of its uses for pure entertainment and
amusement, it wasn’t long before storytellers heard the siren’s song of those
tiny boxes in living rooms across the world.
More channels and greater variety in programming soon became
the ethos of the medium.
In recent decades, the technology has led to larger, thinner
flatter screens, donning the walls of multiple rooms in our homes. Broadcast television, born in 1950, gave way
to cable and then to satellite signals and today these paradigms of
storytelling are currently shifting again to Internet delivery services
connecting viewers of many cultures and geographic regions through the global
tether that is the world-wide web. But
still, despite it’s reputation and it’s reach, these technological advances
have returned the flickering light around which we gather to the fundamental
social unit — the family, the tribe.
In all this, one thing remains a constant. It is the desire, nay — the imperative — of
human beings to gather beside the flickering embers, and whether as members of
the family, or as citizens of the global tribe of humanity, listen to and tell
our stories.
So many may lament the imagined loss of past “golden ages”
of literature and then film or even radio, but for that longing and for the
nostalgic harkening of lifestyles long past, there is in these changes some
consolation. It is comforting to think
of those early human beings, so disparate than we in their struggles for
survival, seated in the setting sun’s last rays, beside a flickering amber glow
to share their stories of hope, their fears of what lay beyond, their histories
and their dreams, so like we in the 1080p glimmer shown over carpets, couches
and easy-chairs.
So, before you judge that tiny box or massive screen,
consider its implication. It is the
modern campfire. Consider, if I might
ask, that it is not merely the latest gadget, but it is your end of a thing
string that tethers humanity to the first of us — today’s stories to the first
stories — today’s truths to the first truths of our existence.
Just another thought "thunk" by a storyteller no smarter than you.
