Episode 169: Oral Storytelling

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This week on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re leaning into this holiday season by talking about oral storytelling.

In this episode, we touch on:

• The additional nuances, significance, and meaning that can be gained by listening to a writer read their own work

• The unique benefits and additional story details that can come from listening to Audiobooks

• How oral storytelling has been used across cultures to pass down knowledge, history, and wisdom

• How oral storytelling also serves to capture and pass down family and generational stories. We’ve probably all experienced this at some point around a dinner table with an older generation sharing stories of the past.

• A research project that uses recording of the storytelling of elders to capture and preserve knowledge and wisdom - as well as the language itself – for dying languages.

Towards the end of this conversation, we talk about the importance of words and language so that we can better share and conceptualize our experiences with one another. And that the more detailed and specific stories we experience, the more connected we can be to the universal human experience.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Happy holidays to you all!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

The Verbivore mistakenly calls John Koenig’s book The Encyclopedia of Infinite Sorrows. That title is actually The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

MasterClass Episodes Mentioned:

• The Importance of Oral Storytelling – LeVar Burton

Here are a few articles and videos we referenced for this conversation:

• National Geographic Article “Storytelling and Cultural Traditions”

• St. Cloud State University Article “St. Cloud State professors to speak at TEDxStCloud 2022”

• Rose and Rex Article “Tell Me A Story: The Importance of Oral Storytelling” by Rebecca Smallberg

Previous Fable and the Verbivore Episodes Referenced:

• Episode 156: Flash Fiction Magic Contest Winners

Books and Films Mentioned:

• Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier (Audiobook), Narrated by Anna Massey

• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Audiobook), Narrated by Wil Wheaton

• Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

• Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron

• Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict and Suspense by James Scott Bell

• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)