![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Last of the Time Lords (and the nature of stories)
I realise that there's one part of this story that particularly resonated with me (no, not the slashy bit - well, of course, I enjoyed the slashy bit, but you took that as read, didn't you?)
I think it's my love of folk traditions and story telling that really made Martha's year long journey to tell a tale around the world work so well for me. The travelling story teller has had a place in many cultures and the oral tradition is not yet dead.
One of my sister-in-law's family is a professional story teller and she told a tale of Jack sent by his mother to buy a bar of soap that had both adults and children enthralled at a recent family birthday party.
For me, the 'Tinkerbell' element works, because stories are all interlinked. Our response to each story is affected by those we have heard before. We view and understand stories through the nature of our cultural experiences to date.
I am always reminded of CS Lewis and Tolkien. At the time they met, Tolkien was a devout Catholic and Lewis was an athiest - the Bible did not make sense to him. It was Tolkien who helped Lewis use his understanding of myth (the nature of sacrifice and the like that is key to many traditional stories and sagas) to understand the 'myth' of Christianity. He said to think of it as a myth that happened to be true.
For myself, one of the elements of myth that tends to work very well is the power of belief. Thus, I'm drawn to stories where belief has a real effect. Hence the massive power of the belief of millions of people, channeled by the gift of a story-teller is something that makes a memorable episode for me.
(Yes, there were crappy bits - Jack was wasted and the paradox machine was too easily destroyed by machine gun fire, but overall, I still like it)
I think it's my love of folk traditions and story telling that really made Martha's year long journey to tell a tale around the world work so well for me. The travelling story teller has had a place in many cultures and the oral tradition is not yet dead.
One of my sister-in-law's family is a professional story teller and she told a tale of Jack sent by his mother to buy a bar of soap that had both adults and children enthralled at a recent family birthday party.
For me, the 'Tinkerbell' element works, because stories are all interlinked. Our response to each story is affected by those we have heard before. We view and understand stories through the nature of our cultural experiences to date.
I am always reminded of CS Lewis and Tolkien. At the time they met, Tolkien was a devout Catholic and Lewis was an athiest - the Bible did not make sense to him. It was Tolkien who helped Lewis use his understanding of myth (the nature of sacrifice and the like that is key to many traditional stories and sagas) to understand the 'myth' of Christianity. He said to think of it as a myth that happened to be true.
For myself, one of the elements of myth that tends to work very well is the power of belief. Thus, I'm drawn to stories where belief has a real effect. Hence the massive power of the belief of millions of people, channeled by the gift of a story-teller is something that makes a memorable episode for me.
(Yes, there were crappy bits - Jack was wasted and the paradox machine was too easily destroyed by machine gun fire, but overall, I still like it)