In the Ovation Section of today’s Columbia Daily Tribune (at post time, their website’s link to the story disappoints), an uncredited Tribune reporter (Marcia Vanderlip has the byline) interviews Master Garrison Keillor in advance of his visit to Columbia this Saturday.
A highlight of the interview:
Tribune: What do you think has happened to storytelling in a culture that watches so much TV?
Keillor: It is still there. And there have always been distractions. Storytelling just has to find some place to come out. It comes out in car trips, or when people feel more free to talk, late at night when people sit and enjoy the quiet. Storytelling has to come out of quiet. You can’t walk into a room where people are watching television and say, "I want to tell you something I just thought of when I was 11." It doesn’t work. Stories come out of silence.
I guess that I agree there is less silence in people’s lives. There is a kind of fear of boredom that leads people to do things like leave the television on, even if nobody is watching, just to have a sound in the house. That’s kind of inimical to storytelling. But there are still places in our lives where stories might surface.
Nice stuff for a Sunday morning. True stuff, too. Stories out there everywhere …
Need to tell one?
Enjoy your coffee this morning.
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