GAMES & STORYTELLING

TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY

- Bayard Catron

Imagine you are a prehistoric human. What is your life like? You may spend your days hunting, tending crops, or crafting. But what do you do in your free time? You likely gather around a fire with other members of your community to tell stories or play games. Storytelling and games have been cornerstones of our civilization and essential to human expression. But when did they first combine? What is the connection between these two pillars of our society?

Storytelling predates the written word and likely began shortly after the advent of spoken language. The earliest storytellers used visual aids to enhance their narrative – gestures, facial expressions, and artwork created on rock walls, living trees, and their bodies. Storytelling was used to explain the world and its origins; as a technique for teaching and learning; to connect individuals to the community; to pass knowledge and values to the next generation; and, of course, to entertain.

With the advent of the printing press, stage plays, cinema, radio, television, and now the internet, prose and narrative have remained ubiquitous in our culture. As Reynolds Price wrote in 1978, “A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens — second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives…”