discussion: stories
Aug. 9th, 2011 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lovepeaceohana posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
uudreamersOur young adult group has discussion nights twice a month; I hosted the last one, and figured I'd share the discussion prompt here because I'd love to get more thoughts and opinions from other UUs!
So: stories. Your favorites, ones that have made the most impact on your life, ones that you have taken by heart, or have taken you by surprise; the stories we tell about ourselves, and each other, and the role that storytelling of this sort plays in building our identities; the stories we tell about the workings of the world, and our place in it; the different purposes stories serve, as sources of cultural memory, carriers of social moralities; and of course, ways we can influence stories, or reinterpret them, and the effects of those transformations on ourselves and others. Talk! Share!
So: stories. Your favorites, ones that have made the most impact on your life, ones that you have taken by heart, or have taken you by surprise; the stories we tell about ourselves, and each other, and the role that storytelling of this sort plays in building our identities; the stories we tell about the workings of the world, and our place in it; the different purposes stories serve, as sources of cultural memory, carriers of social moralities; and of course, ways we can influence stories, or reinterpret them, and the effects of those transformations on ourselves and others. Talk! Share!
no subject
Date: 2011-08-11 09:10 pm (UTC)The story I like to read the most is the group version of Beauty & The Beast. (In fact, Walt Disney's Beauty & The Beast is a near perfect version of this story.) I like to read the story where a small group of people are thrown together by adverse circumstances they cannot control, they work to overcome these adverse circumstances, and, because of their shared experience, their world views are realigned with one anothers' in a way that outsiders could not truly understand, and they totally love each other a lot, even the annoying ones.
This is very similar to a created family motif, but it is a little more claustrophic, because the ideal size for this grouping is five and you can't plug into an extended network, but also because it's not just a question of liking each other a lot, it's all of us being special in a way no one else can experience that is important.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-12 07:54 pm (UTC)I am also a huge fan of created-family stories! Although before you mentioned it, I would not have said that Beauty & The Beast fit that narrative - but you're totally right, and it's really exciting to me to be able to see that angle now. (Makes me wonder if Gaston might have had a place, if he could just have gotten over himself and/or wasn't stuck as The Villain.)