Ancient Story Tellers.

Some years ago I was on a documentary assignment with the US Military, in a country that was foreign to both me and the soldiers I was filming..During one of our informal chats we discussed the quality of the local motor cars.
They were all in very bad condition, not surprisingly, and my military companions put this down to the inability of the locals to make good vehicles.....now get this...They all agreed among themselves that as vehicles had been around for several hundred years the locals should have made some improvements in their production lines...I did point out that the country we were in did not manufacture vehicles of any sort ..  ever ..they bred sturdy camels tho.

Why mention this odd thought process, well I did some more research among film crew members, most of them being graduates from various film colleges, it was a common theme that computers had always been around, TV also, planes, phones, electricity, fridges, foreign package holidays..the list is almost endless..all of these recent techy advances were all taken for granted.....which brings me to the point of this article.

Story tellers, particularly from ancient times were the frontrunners in what has become one of the more enlightening experiences of mankind,the ability to read stories.....but these ancient fellas who wandered around the small villages, in virtually every country in the world and who told their wonderful stories to awestruck villagers in smoke filled shacks, huts, village campfires, you name it.

They did not store their stories on paper, just memory, which no doubt changed slightly with the numerous tellings, no point in having paper because they probably couldn't read anyway, nonethe less they would entrance their audiences, after all there was very little in the way of entertainment in those far off days.
 The storytellers were the pioneers of our modern day writers, screen writers, play rights, Directors.If they had been around today there is litttle doubt they would have been in the entertainment business.

The same could be said about someone like Will Shakespeare, forget Stratford on Avon, that lad would have gone straight to LA.

One thing always impresses me about the writers such as Shakespeare,Mark Twain, Dickens,  RL Stevenson,The Brontes, Carroll.. et al..  there were dozens of them churning out stories that were all the products of amazing imaginations, they sat in darkened rooms with a quill and some candles and conjured up breathtaking tales, all from the mind.
What did Shakespeare know of the Traders of Venice, the Royal Court of Denmark etc.. Treasure Island is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, what did the writer know of the ways of pirates, who can forget Blind Pugh struggling along the storm swept coast road to reach the Admiral Benbow, to deliver his message of death,the Black Spot.

The readers of these stories were hooked from the first chapter.

Which brings me to another more relevant point..who taught these brilliant storytellers, just like the ancient forerunners of their trade, the simple answer is..  No one.

There were no computers or search engines, all of these writers and storytellers created their own world.So is it really necessary to go to college to obtain a degree in Literature, to analyse every single sentence and motivation, to examine the subplot,the gauging of dialogue and its delivery.Not a quiestion I can answer really, but I think I  would rather spend an evening in a smoky old hut listening to an ancient story teller than spen timewith  a sophisticated group of Professors of Literature elaborating on  their theories...Why don't they just go home and write another blockbuster adventure story instead of talking about it.

These are the personal views of RJ Dodd.
Please feel free to disagree.