The Modern Story

The Modern Story

by William Michaelian

The modern story is also the ancient one. Clothe it any way we like, it still contains the firelight of that far off, unrecorded time, when words and sounds and stars were not so rigidly defined. Nights then were profoundly dark — as dark as any moral, religious, or philosophical abyss we have since invented or imagined. If they had not been so dark — if the world were bathed in constant light and the riddle of the night sky had never been posed or revealed — how different our stories would have been!

No story exists without its respective measures of darkness and light. The brightest story is bright because we know and have experienced darkness; the darkest story is dark precisely because, once upon a time, light was born.

Imagination itself is a child of darkness: what cannot be seen, must be created within; what is not yet understood, must be pursued and given new names.

Or is death the reason we began to tell stories?

And is it the reason we still tell them?

And what of the stories that bore us? Are they boring because we, as storytellers and listeners, are lazy, shallow, or dishonest, or because we have not given death its due? Are they boring because we are too impressed or preoccupied with ourselves to deeply observe and be surprised by the world around us?

The greatest stories are great, I believe, in direct proportion to our moral and physical suffering and our instinctive need to rejoice.

Again, darkness and light.

A storyteller who hasn’t suffered, or who fails to acknowledge, imagine, or embrace the suffering and cares of others, does not deserve the respect and attention of his listeners. And a listener who wants to hear only what he knows, or what he thinks he knows, isn’t really a listener at all.

The dullest stories are dull for numerous dull reasons. But for that, there is a simple remedy: we must not be dull ourselves — we must be willing to live our stories, and then demand that each word, breath, and phrase of them be true.

William Michaelian is a regular contributor to The Modern Story. His newest releases are two poetry collections, Winter Poems and Another Song I Know. He is the author of two novels, three story collections, a daily journal in two volumes, and numerous columns, essays, and reviews. He is currently working on a collection of poetry and prose called Songs and Letters. He lives in Salem, Oregon.

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