Even beyond the context of the allegations, this whole thread is correct.
The recent trend of stories about The Power of Storytelling is a massive con. It's a questionable claim at best, plus it's usually deployed to cover up some weak writing.
I've believed for a while that writers who go on about the power of stories are telling a self-serving lie. Just how self-serving can be seen in how the chap who told us fiction teaches us empathy can't understand consent, power dynamics, basic human decency. Literature is an amazing product of
Game of Thrones finale is an obvious example. I can't believe they thought they'd get away with "storytelling is the greatest power of all" as an ending.
When a fictional character starts talking about the power of storytelling... that's just the author talking about how great they are!
It's always so jarring. It's like if your boiler started telling you about the magic of plumbing.
I don't disagree with what you're saying in the particular context you describe, but I can't really agree with the thread you quote overall. Speaking as someone who uses storytelling professionally to communicate big concepts and heavy science, I've seen how powerful it can be, & I think it would...
...be a shame if the entire notion of storytelling as something powerful got rejected because one bloke is full of crap. Must emphasise though, I completely agree with what you're saying about it in the context of authors inserting it into fiction in a self-congratulatory way.
Oh absolutely, but I don't think those points contradict each other. Stories *are* powerful, but The Power of Storytelling is a trope that often appears in weak stories. And it feeds the idea that storytelling is an inherently moral act, which isn't true!
Having written a book in which one of the character waxes lyrical about storytelling (to be fair, it's a soul-eating sword that reviews people's lives as it eats them), it's partly second-book syndrome. When you're stuck in a room for a year writing, all you have to write about is writing...
To be clear though, there’s nothing wrong with talking about writing in writing. It’s specifically the Isn’t Storytelling Brilliant trope I was critiquing, as found in the works of Gaiman/Rowling/Moffatt/the GoT guys.
Another example I had in mind was the #Girlboss Matilda musical…
…where reading is portrayed as this incredible superpower that makes you a teeny bit better than everyone else. Dahl’s version also celebrated reading, but portrayed it as more of a psychic defence against a world gone mad. Subtle but essential difference.
You talk about the power of stories a lot in Book 2 too tho.
But I feel like it's got more of a "watch out for propaganda" vibe to it rather than "aren't stories great?"
