Prologue

Thank you, Patrick Rothfuss. Because of authors like you, I will never forget the power of story.

Someone once asked me which was my favorite word out of all the words in the English language. First I tried to think of a funny answer, then I tried to think of a clever one, but nothing felt right. So in the end, I decided to stop trying to be funny or clever and just be honest. As soon as I made that decision, the answer came easily: Of all the words in the English language, my favorite word was (and still is) ‘story.’

Why is this my favorite word? Yes, I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember, so obviously I love stories. But there’s more to it than that. I am, in fact, passionate about literature, and I know that the people who scorn the study of literature as a self-indulgent frivolity could not be more wrong. Literature is humanity, its past, present, and future. It doesn’t just explain us to ourselves, it creates us. Since the dawn of man, civilization has been fueled by the power of stories. When trying to make sense of the world, humanity remembered its history and based its religions on stories, myths, and legends. New ideas, new philosophies, new ideologies have always been tried out first in stories of some form. We continually test our limits and find out how far we can go in science, the arts, philosophy, politics, and social evolution through our stories. Our stories always have been, and always will be, in the vanguard of human progress.

Thus, I am sure that the power of stories is quantifiable to a certain extent. But their greatest power, their deepest power, their most ancient and fundamental power, is something that cannot be measured – is something that, paradoxically, cannot be described in words. It is enigmatic, unfathomable, elusive – quite frankly, it is not just mysterious, it is mystical. I think of it in these terms: the power of STORIES is to make us think, but the power of STORY is to make us FEEL.

It is the power of story that makes my heart sing and my eyes shine. It is the power of story that fascinates me. I know that trying to pin it down is like “chasing colored phantoms on the air” (to paraphrase Edna St Vincent Millay’s beautiful sonnet, ‘Once More into My Arid Days like Dew‘), yet I could not abandon my fool’s errand if I tried. I am drawn to the power of story as to a siren’s song, and I will never cease following it, trying and failing to catch sight of its true form, its true meaning, its true essence.

Some people believe that emotion clouds thought. I believe we do our best thinking when we have been inspired to feel something – sadness, anger, joy, curiosity, awe. And so, I read story after story, searching for the heart of each one and what it can teach me, or hint to me, about the power of story. I have developed the habit of reviewing the stories that make me feel, and most of my blog entries will be comprised of these reviews. But there is more to it than that. This blog is the expression of my fascination with the power of story, and will include any relevant thing that my search uncovers. Are you willing to follow me on my journey, knowing that I am seeking the answer to an unanswerable question: What is the power of story?