"... And in the novel, as in life, whether he lives or dies depends on which story he believes."

"And this I do believe."

"Which is why I tell these three stories over and over again. the story of the time my son and I came to Canada. The story of my short career as a basketball player. the story of an old man and his garden. "

"And there are others."

"I tell them to myself, to my friends, sometimes to strangers. Because they make me laugh. Because they are a particular kind of story. Saving stories, if you will. Stories that help keep me alive."

"Of course, you don't have to pay attention to any of these stories. Louis's story is not particularly cheery. Alexie's story doesn't have a demonstrably happy ending. Neither participates fully in Western epistemologies, and my three don't have a moral centre not are they particularly illuminating."

"But help yourself to one if you like."

"Take Louis's story, for instance. It's yours. Do with it what you will. Cry over it. Get angry. Forget it. But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story."

"You've heard it now."(Tomas King | The Truth About Stories | A Million Porcupines Crying in the Dark | 119)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heart Play

My thoughts are wounds in my head. My brain is a scar. I want to be a machine. Arms to drag legs to walk no pain no thinking. (Heiner Müller , 'Hamletmachine' ) Heartplay A May I lay my heart at your feet. B If you don't make a mess on my floor.. A My heart is clean.. B We'll see, won't we.. A I can't get it out.. B Would you like me to help you.. A If you wouldn't mind.. B It'll be a pleasure. I can't get it out either.. A cries. B I will remove it surgically. What have I got this penknife for anyway. We'll have this sorted out in no time. work will keep you from despair. Right, there we are. But this is a brick. Your heart is a red brick.. A Yes, but it beats only for you.. (1981) A beats B to death with the brick.. (Addition, July 1991). ------------- Heiner Müller ----------------- from Heiner Müller Theatremachine translated and edited by Marc von Henning
Read more

A Requiem coming

Image
:: Note::  ... our performance group Untamed has created a piece ... coming soon ... after 12 workshop sessions and 15 rehearsals we are about to be ready ... a few more sessions when we return from Mongolia where we perform our signature piece " Untamed " ...  then " Abandoned: a thousand tongues" will happen ...   
Read more

Untamed

Image
Untamed A piece to be approached as a poem. Yet there is a story ... The untamed, perhaps even called a 'soul' reimagines the past. Alone having left Korea, untamed has wandered foreign horizons. Releasing a blur of pain, lips call out scaring away the bitter hurt.   In early autumn returning to Seoul, a place once called home, wild faces the times. What did Korea mean? What does it bring now? The flowering tree under the harvest moon beckons. Tread softly for the journey has just begun.  Prologue  Spirit,  form the Koryo Dynasty, enters. Plays Buk & dances: cleansing the space. Exits  (5 min.) I. Facing the Past Wild emerges from the flowering tree. Finds a posted paper on the tree and reads  Yi Sang poem:   Flowering Tree / 꽃나무 On an open field      a flowering tree stands      with no other like it      nearby      the flowering tree blossoms with a burning heart      as if thinking of      another flowering tree      burns its heart.      The flowering tree cannot reac
Read more