Once upon a time, there was a group of people sitting around a campfire. They were trading stories. Stories have been a part of human culture for thousands of years, and for all that time people have been captivated by characters who do not exist, doing daring deeds in places that never were. Stories play an important role in communication, in helping us connect with each other, and in inspiring us. Through stories, we educate and entertain. In this blog post, we will explore the impact of stories on the world.
Let us start at the beginning, or as near to it as we can get. The world's oldest known story is believed to be the Sumerian epic poem "The Epic of Gilgamesh," and it dates back to around 2100 BC. The story follows the eponymous hero on their quest for immortality. Spoiler alert for a story over 4000 years old, but the main takeaway from the tale is about the inevitability of death. This means that for over 4000 years (at least), we have been using stories as a form of education, on all sorts of topics. We use this story to teach each other about the futility of searching for immortality. We use the story of Little Red Riding Hood to learn that strangers in the woods perhaps shouldn’t be trusted. We use tales of the Laboon, or the "wave that eats people," to know the warning signs for tsunamis. We use stories to learn about the world.
Through stories, we can communicate and inform across generations. The story that I once heard to illustrate this point was about a volcano. One day, a little boy saw the volcano erupt. He witnessed the lava flow and the destruction of the landscape. He survived, grew up, and had a family of his own. The volcano remained dormant all the while. When he was old, he told his grandchildren about the volcano erupting. They didn’t believe him — the mountain had never changed for them, it was just a mountain. They then grew up and had their own families. If they decided one day to say, "You know, my grandfather said once that that mountain there vomited fire out of it," they would all laugh together about how silly an idea that was. Mountains are solid; they don’t spit fire. The future generations were wholly unprepared when the volcano erupted again. However, if it wasn't just a volcano, but the story of a God enraged by the people, it was more likely to be told again. A mountain may "just be a mountain," but everyone knew from their other stories that Gods were emotional and sometimes destructive beings. A tale that included warning signs of the Gods’ anger, such as the ground shaking, is much more interesting. The future generations would remember the old story, recognise the warning signs (which happened to also be the warning signs for the volcano eruption), and be more prepared.
Neil Gaiman is one of many people who once said that stories are a way of using lies to tell the truth. It seems fitting then, that I use one of his stories next to talk about stories as inspiration. Through stories, we can do things we have never done before and experience the world in new ways. If we’re reading about how a character similar to us overcomes deadly situations, we also learn that we have the potential to overcome dangerous odds too. In Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline, the main villain is the "Other Mother". Coraline discovers throughout the book just how dangerous and scary the Other Mother can be, which means that when the Other Mother kidnaps her parents, she knows exactly how dangerous her quest to get them back is. In the real world, there is no Other Mother — it’s all a lie. But plenty of readers have used this and other tales of bravery to inspire themselves to handle the problems in their own lives. If Coraline can do it, why can’t they? Whether it’s a story of achieving your dreams or one of surviving your nightmares, reading or hearing stories of others' success shows us that success is possible.
Of course, stories don’t only inspire, communicate, and educate. They entertain. This is equally as important as everything else covered so far, as entertainment is important to your mental health. Laughing at a story together with others allows you to form deeper bonds with each other. Stepping into the world of the story lets you forget about your own world and worries for a while. Stories following a group of friends can help with feelings of loneliness and isolation. Stories remove boredom and stimulate the mind. A ‘happily ever after’ can leave you feeling happy and satisfied.
The importance of stories cannot be overstated. From education and communication across generations, to inspiration and entertainment in our day-to-day lives, stories have a huge impact on our lives. Whether they were first told 4000 years ago or today, stories play a vital role in helping us understand ourselves, each other, and the wider world around us, making them an integral part of the human experience.