Kashkalgar
2014-02-18, 11:13 PM
“For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk.” Pink Floyd – Keep Talking
Storytelling has been around as long as we have. It is an art. And there have always been people who keep that art alive. In our current society, in which we must suffer work to obtain the means to live, there are two classes of storytellers. The first tell stories in their spare time, as a hobby. The second tell stories professionally, and are paid for their services. With the Order of the Stick we have a relatively unique phenomenon: a hybrid.
The first group of modern storytellers fall into two rough categories. The first are spinning their tales onto paper or computer screens in the hopes of one day breaking into the category of professional storyteller. The second find a small audience and use their input to spin a story. This second sub-category is, to me, viscerally compelling because it aligns with my imagination of what storytelling must have been like in its infancy, as we were growing up as a species. All the game masters and players, everyone who has sat at a table or across an internet connection and tried to share an imaginary world, are part of this legacy.
It is this group in which storytelling lives as an art. Rich Burlew comes from this background. A role player himself, Rich started writing for these modern storytellers. And at first, like all of us amateurs, he approached his story with a combination of seriousness and frivolity, with the intention only to entertain. Then the unthinkable happened.
Tens of thousands of people sat down at the campfire.
At first, Rich kept to a semi-regular schedule: one tale per week. And during that week, while the next tale was brewing, we all sat around the campfire and talked about it. We started to care. And when the listeners care about the story that the storyteller is spinning, the storyteller becomes a bit more than human. He feels the weight of his own world on his shoulders, and it lifts him up.
As the years passed, we developed a connection to the characters. Just as our minds organize themselves to attempt to run simplified copies of the minds of influential people around us, our minds started to contain copies of Roy, Haley, V, Durkon, Elan, and (for better or worse) Belkar. When the story led them into situations new to them, we were able to refine our mental models of our friends. When they reacted in a way that went against our mental model, we were upset. Some of us stood up and left the campfire. But most of us stayed. After all, this is Rich's story.
And we all talked about it. And that, more than anything, is what makes the Order of the Stick the epic phenomenon that it is. Hundreds of literary critics scrutinizing every last shadow on every last panel give a level of feedback to the storyteller that is, frankly, unprecedented.
So, good on you Rich, and good on all you forumites. (with a special shout out to Porthos) When we finally stand up and leave the campfire after this epic tale, we will leave inspired. We will spin our own tales to our friends. And we will remember to not take ourselves very seriously.
Storytelling has been around as long as we have. It is an art. And there have always been people who keep that art alive. In our current society, in which we must suffer work to obtain the means to live, there are two classes of storytellers. The first tell stories in their spare time, as a hobby. The second tell stories professionally, and are paid for their services. With the Order of the Stick we have a relatively unique phenomenon: a hybrid.
The first group of modern storytellers fall into two rough categories. The first are spinning their tales onto paper or computer screens in the hopes of one day breaking into the category of professional storyteller. The second find a small audience and use their input to spin a story. This second sub-category is, to me, viscerally compelling because it aligns with my imagination of what storytelling must have been like in its infancy, as we were growing up as a species. All the game masters and players, everyone who has sat at a table or across an internet connection and tried to share an imaginary world, are part of this legacy.
It is this group in which storytelling lives as an art. Rich Burlew comes from this background. A role player himself, Rich started writing for these modern storytellers. And at first, like all of us amateurs, he approached his story with a combination of seriousness and frivolity, with the intention only to entertain. Then the unthinkable happened.
Tens of thousands of people sat down at the campfire.
At first, Rich kept to a semi-regular schedule: one tale per week. And during that week, while the next tale was brewing, we all sat around the campfire and talked about it. We started to care. And when the listeners care about the story that the storyteller is spinning, the storyteller becomes a bit more than human. He feels the weight of his own world on his shoulders, and it lifts him up.
As the years passed, we developed a connection to the characters. Just as our minds organize themselves to attempt to run simplified copies of the minds of influential people around us, our minds started to contain copies of Roy, Haley, V, Durkon, Elan, and (for better or worse) Belkar. When the story led them into situations new to them, we were able to refine our mental models of our friends. When they reacted in a way that went against our mental model, we were upset. Some of us stood up and left the campfire. But most of us stayed. After all, this is Rich's story.
And we all talked about it. And that, more than anything, is what makes the Order of the Stick the epic phenomenon that it is. Hundreds of literary critics scrutinizing every last shadow on every last panel give a level of feedback to the storyteller that is, frankly, unprecedented.
So, good on you Rich, and good on all you forumites. (with a special shout out to Porthos) When we finally stand up and leave the campfire after this epic tale, we will leave inspired. We will spin our own tales to our friends. And we will remember to not take ourselves very seriously.