The Gift, by Lewis Hyde

The Gift starts with an anthropological overview of giftgiving, and proceeds to argue that works of art - which are treated as commodities in modern western culture - ought to be seen, first and foremost, as gifts. This book is a call to suspend concern for the wallet in order to tend to the soul, the culture, the community. It is also readable, compelling, and highly recommended for storytellers and audience members alike.

Resolution: Create a story or work of art, no matter how modest, and give it away anonymously. For example, write a short story on a postcard and leave it in a public place. Is it easier/harder/more enjoyable to create the work when you know you will receive neither credit nor payment?

Click on the cover image to purchase this book from an indie bookseller near you.

Active Entertainment

The NEA's recent report To Read or Not to Read, reported that Americans are reading less. More surprisingly, it also showed that readers are more likely to volunteer, participate in and patronize the arts, vote, and even exercise than non-readers.

Why is that? The study didn't say, but my bet is that the reason is twofold: First, reading literature produces empathy; hearing someone else's story helps you understand another's challenges and joys, motivating you both to kindness and to improve your own lot. Second, reading, despite appearances, is an active form of entertainment. In order to make these little black scribbles into words and thoughts and pictures and stories, you have to be paying attention and using your imagination.

So, today's suggestion: Make your medium active. If you're on stage, do your darndest to get your audience to talk back. If you're on tv, try to make the viewers stand up and participate. If you're writing, I want your readers to be unable to sit still. If this sounds daunting, but try to keep it simple; Peter Pan is a children's story, but have you ever watched it without your hands just itching to clap little Tinkerbell back to life?

Today's words are: inspire, move, engage.

"We Read to Know We Are Not Alone"

This quote, written by William Nicholson for his screenplay Shadowlands, seems to have struck a cord: it returns 15,800 hits on google. Interestingly, this statement is most often attributed to Shadowlands' main character C.S. Lewis.

I'd venture to say that the same statement could be applied to any storytelling medium, be it going to the theatre, watching a film, or blogging.

Why bother? According to John Waters:

…Our best playwrights continue to present us with unsettlingly truthful versions of ourselves. The irony is that these versions must be coated in the taste and color of our delusion. They must tell us what we need to know while allowing us the option of denying it in public. –John Waters in Druids, Dudes, and Beauty Queens

Audiences in Training

Last night I attended a taiko drumming performance at a theatre downtown. It was gorgeous. As an introduction, two members of the troupe danced on stage in lion masks. The little girl behind me, with more fantastic creatures on her mind, asked, "Is that a real dragon?" "No," her teenage brother scoffed, "it's a person in a costume."

They continued their conversation through most of the rest of the performance. Granted, taiko is not a quiet art form, but it is meditative, powerful, and (at least in this presentation) best listened to without a chatty child and a sullen but talkative teenager sitting behind you. Of course the little girl didn't know any better, but what's sad is that neither her brother nor their parent did either.

The tv doesn't care if you talk while it's on, and you can always watch a movie again. But any live performance is a once-in-a-lifetime event. The performers know you're there; sometimes they can see and hear you. And there is something perhaps sacred about witnessing people do something extraordinary, whether it is the strength and discipline of taiko drumming, the suspended disbelief of storytelling, or the illusions of slight of hand. But the audience is a participant in live performance, even if they don't know it.