In the blog The Mythology of Humanity, “jessaslade” recently mused about the purpose of storytelling and listed:
- To achieve immortality, of deeds and for the storyteller
- To explain otherwise senseless phenomena
- To entertain/educate
- To moralize/terrify
- To beta test new versions of reality
- To exorcise* the imagination
- To land a movie deal
(*Is that really “exorcise,” or it it “exercise?”)
It would be easy to add many items to this list, but my tendency is to go the opposite way and reduce the purposes of storytelling to just three:
- Storytelling for change
- Storytelling for identity construction
- Storytelling for sensemaking and learning
I argue that it is possible to fit any kind of storytelling into one of these three categories. Coming soon is an essay in which I defend these as the definitive storytelling categories.
Hello, I am Chief Warrant Officer Nathan W. Tierney and am currently on active duty with the United States Army. I have launched a web site called “The Frontlines”, which provides veterans, family members and friends, a venue for telling a story about their experiences while serving in any branch of the armed forces, to include the Coast Guard and National Guard. The website allows the storyteller to create a written account of their experience and to include video, audio, photos, or art they may have. The purpose of the storytelling is to: a) Document a personal account of a particular combat experience b) Provide a safe and supportive arena in which to share such a story c) Develop a sense of community to overcome what, for many veterans, is a lonely experience. Storytellers receive no money for their efforts. However, 100% of all donations made on the website is given to the Wounded Warrior Project a non-profit organization created to, “honor and empower wounded warriors; raise awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women; help severely injured service members aid and assist each other; and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of severely injured service members” (www.woundedwarriorproject.org). Any assistance you can give in spreading the word about The Frontlines would be greatly appreciated. Or to donate to a worthy cause of supporting our wounded veterans please do so here on CrowdRise or through The Frontlines. To learn more about our cause please visit the website at www.thefrontlines.com. Thank you very much for your time.
Very respectfully, Nathan W. Tierney CW3(P), USA nathan@thefrontlines.com
Thanks so much for telling me about your site. I will list it on one of my inside pages and possible do a blog post about it.