Story, myth, reader response

HUM 221 student advisory --

This post adds a new persepctive to our thread on reader response. From Ireland, of all places.

It's from a novel called Ireland by Frank Delaney, a broadcaster for the BBC network in Great Britain who has written eight other novels. This one is about an Irish storyteller, or seanchai, and Avon brought it out in paperback in March. (Ever right up to date, I found it on the bookrack at Jewel-Osco about 9 p.m. last night, with three hours to go in the month.) In a little introduction up in the Roman numeral section of the book, Delaney says "to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination." Of course, he's not just talking about the Irish. And that's where HUM 221 and reader response come in. Delaney adds:

[W]e all do that. We merge our myths with our facts according to our feelings, we tell ourselves our own story. And no matter what we are told, we choose what we believe. All "truths" are only our truths, because we bring to the "facts" our feelings, our experiences, our wishes. Thus, storytelling -- from wherever it comes -- forms a layer in the foundation of the world; and glinting on it we can see the trace elements of every tribe on earth. (v)

I would only add that by engaging ourselves with another person's story, we can add something to our own tribal elements, modify them and make them our own.

Footnote: I wasn't familiar with the word "seanchai," so I googled it. I found it it's pronounced SHAWn-a-kee, and it's the Gaelic word for a storyteller. I also found a really well written weblog called Blogh An Seanchai. It's by an Irish software developer who said it's "an Irish Gaelic word, to describe old guys who sat by the fire in the evening and told stories that meandered between fact and fantasy." After my own heart!