Susan Sontag on Storytelling, What It Means to Be a Good Human Being, and Her Advice to Writers
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Susan Sontag on Storytelling, What It Means to Be a Good Human Being, and Her Advice to Writers
History written by the victors offers glimpses of marginalized figures, for whom we need to “fabulate” stories to “strain against the limits of the archive” and “represent lives… through the process of narration.” Building relationships between things is a form of authorship too.
Mindy Seu • On Gathering
True storytelling inspires people to see the world and themselves differently or perhaps more honestly and courageously. Reporting on our life never produces this reaction. Yes, there is bad storytelling. Loads of it. But much more often, people are fooled by content masquerading as storytelling. It’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, except that Ae
... See moreMatthew Dicks • Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Brand
reading and writing are not done in a vacuum. What people read and write affects how they act in the world. If writers really believe that art is important to actual life, then the responsibilities of actual life are the responsibilities of art.
Matthew Salesses • Craft in the Real World
But adding empathy and the irreducibly subjective dimension of the personal narrative to history does not detract from the truth. It enhances the truth. That we accept our own frailties and subjectivity does not free us to abdicate the moral responsibility to tell the truth, even if, and especially if, “truth” is not singular but a set of shared ex
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