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Storytelling Begins At Home
By Corvus | September 30, 2005
In between reading some short novels, dealing with life, and putting in hours as a toy shill, I’ve been nibbling away at Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan. It’s by far the crunchiest book I’ve treated myself to in a while and requires extensive and careful chewing. I’ve been jotting down segments that hooked my imagination for a little public mastication.
For myth is the instant vision of a complex process that ordinarily extends over a long period. Myth is contraction or implosion of any process, and the instant speed of electricity confers the mythic dimension on ordinary industrial and social action today. We live mythically but continue to think fragmentarily and on single planes.
Myth has long been a fascination of mine. Not, as it was when I was nine, because enormous serpents living under the ocean, man-bulls living in sprawling mazes, and winged horses are cool, but because it quickly became apparent to me that myths were, in essence, the stories cultures told about themselves. The metaphors used to explain perceptions of the world tell us a great deal about cultures’ self identity. Furthermore, when you begin to compare mythologies from across the world you begin to see some very interesting parallels, suggesting that, as social creatures, we all deal with the same issues, regardless of our country of origin (yeah, hardly a revolutionary observation, but in today’s political clime, an observation worth repeating over and over and over).
Myth, and the telling of myth, has a power to shape a culture. The verbal repetition of cultural symbols has power. Power to shape the culture, guide it, and define its boundaries. We live in such a fractured culture today that I don’t think we have any one myth cycle we identify with as a culture, although we do, in retrospect, apply myths to various decades and then later, the marketing companies help us repeat them via a resurgence of clothing and accessories.
At this point, I could go on a long, potentially judgmental, rant about the state of a society without a unifying myth cycle, the danger of placing our mythic iconography in the hands of NBC (peacock -> Hera -> scheming, spying, jealous murderess (I’m just sayin’)), Nike, and our good friends at Coca Cola and MickeyD’s (they really want the best for us, really they do). I could also talk about the factors that led to the decentralization of cultural myth, the atomic forces that have changed our mythic endings, and how our media has damaged our ability (by and large) to tell complete and rich stories about ourselves. But, unlike yesterday, I’m feeling pretty good about our resilience, our ability to adapt, survive, and tell some decent stories about ourselves… eventually.
Some time ago I decided that if I wasn’t able to count on actively participating in a cultural myth that fit, I’d need to craft my own. Slowly, over time, that myth has become both more and less connected to the cultural forces and people around me. Less, because over the years, I’ve rejected more and more elements of the cultural myths that surround me. More, because as I become more confident in the richness, validity, and importance, of my personal myth, the more I notice people around me struggling, on some level, to gain a handle on their own myths. People trying to create a story that will frame their lives, their triumhs, and their conflicts. People not using episodes of Friends, Seinfeld, or Sponge Bob to do so. When we recognize each other, despite our dramatically different political, spiritual, and cultural backgrounds, we share our myths. We learn from each other and take strength from each other. In recognizing our “fragmentary and single plane” differences, we’re finding the common underlying myths.
Mike Wilson, somewhat ironically proclaimed a “one-time media darling” at the top of this Next Gen piece on the importance of telling your company’s story. As an accurate reflection of his culture (or more importantly, the site he wrote the article for), his suggestions all revolve around PR and the the press. But I think knowing your company’s story is important, not just so the press and public know what to think about you, but so that you, your partners, and your employees know how to think and feel about it. Myths have clear beginnings, many have clear endings, and all chart a discernable, if convoluted and prismatic, path from one point in the cycle to the next. Good stories are engaging and exciting. So should good companies be.
So here’s your homework. There’s nothing to turn in. No papers. No tests. Just one simple question to ponder.
What’s your story?
October 3rd, 2005 at 5:53 am
This is a theme that’s very close to my heart. In particular, since our shared myth structures have broken down, what is the appropriate next step? I believe they we can create our own mythology when we need to, but that this renders it largely private. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it is insufficient to resolve the cultural problems that result from lacking common mythology.
Of course, we *do* have common mythology – but it tends to be shallow. James Bond is a modern folk hero, but his stories are infantile power fantasies. I’m not knocking this – it has it’s place – but it’s facile entertainment, not something to anchor a culture upon. And, as you say, we have corporate mythology. Good marketing/PR (as Seth Godin rambles on about) is based upon storytelling.
I feel the answer may lie in the global unification of myths to some extent – in learning the mythologies of different countries, regions and religions and so building a unified (but disparate and diverse) global mythology.
Perhaps, however, we should take a leaf out of Mother Teressa’s book and sort out our problems locally… Each region needs to get a handle upon it’s local mythology (which should include the mythology introduced to a region via immigation et al). In the US I see such conflict between the myths and beliefs of the Scientific community (entirely separate to, but affecting, the process of science itself) and the myths and beliefs of religous communities. Making it into a war won’t resolve this problem – we must find a common mythology.
At least, such is my belief.
I will blog on this subject at some point, but it’s just too easy for me to get distracted and start pursuing my philosophical crusades through the blog, and I’m accutely aware that my readership is largely there to hear me ramble on the topic of games, not to hear me tilt at windmills. 
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:13 am
I struggle with that balance myself (as you’ve no doubt noticed). My concepts of good game design, however, are so strongly informed by my windmill tilting that I find it mostly impossible to separate them. This struggle, in fact, is what lead to the political strategy game debate.
I find the most interesting thing about the whole science vs. religion arguments is that without the western model of nature dominance via science that Christianity wouldn’t have the hold that it does. As I see it, Christianity has separated itself from its spiritual source by declaring respect/worship of nature to be Satanic and from its societal control mechanisms by its rejection of science.
In fact, given the rise of new churches, complete with workout gyms and coffee bars, it could be argued that Christianity has become the religion of capitalism and consumerism. If you’re good, God will make sure you get stuph and then, when you die you’ll, get even more stuph. If you’re evil, God will punish you by giving you less stuph… or maybe, just maybe, if you’re really evil, taking your stuph away.
It seems to be the way the customers at TRU are raising their kids. They must have got the idea somewhere. *nirg*
October 3rd, 2005 at 1:05 pm
About the Mike Wilson piece (which he didn’t write, btw), I think it’s important to note that Wilson says “if it’s your message because it’s what’s on your mind or in your heart…”
That’s the key. Any good leader or manager *already* tells the company story to employees and partners and vendors and family.
But most people find it hard to make the leap to telling the world.
It’s going from introversion (inside your company) to extroversion (outside your company). It’s hard, and we can all use a little coaching on how to talk to the press…
October 3rd, 2005 at 6:21 pm
That’s one of the few books that I’ve had to read in tiny little chunks just to process it.
Myth, and the telling of myth, has a power to shape a culture.
As a side note, the Freemasons (and other similar organizations, including the one in which I’m involved) have made good use of this for many years.
From my own observation, a broad background in mythology gives more insight into the lives that people lead than anything else I can think of. Myths not only give us clues about who we are and who we can become, but also make it clearer what all of those other folks are up to.
I have met a beautiful dryad bound to her tree. I have listened to a siren and watched sailors leap into whitewater flood to reach her, and have escaped the cyclops with my wit. The youthful Mercury tricked me with his innocent face and ran off so quickly I could never catch him. Coyote lived across the hall in an apartment building in Anoka.
Myths have clear beginnings, many have clear endings, and all chart a discernable, if convoluted and prismatic, path from one point in the cycle to the next.
Knowing a person’s myth is a near equivalent to knowing their True Name. It often gives you power over them because you can see their pattern, and myths frequently detail how to deal with their subjects appropriately.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:21 pm
Guest (Evan?): Sorry about mis-attributing the article. It was, obviously written by N. Evan Van Zelfden, making Wilson the focus, not the originator. Lucky thing I write an opinionated, headstrong blog, and not a “news” site, eh?
Also, I didn’t mean to imply (if, indeed, I did) that Mike wouldn’t agree with my take, or that his opinion differed. I was just emphasizing the importance of personal myth.
Chris & Undercrypt: Expect an eventual follow up post, especially concerning the concept of Amalgamyth (trademark pending).
October 4th, 2005 at 4:16 am
If anyone inside Christianity is promoting Capitalism/Consumerism as a compatible philosophy they need challenging. The only time we see Jesus getting really angry is when he upends the moneychangers tables in the temples in Jerusalem. Remember the metaphor of the camel and the eye of the needle?
I don’t think these people are getting it from their religion – I think they’re getting it from their government and the TV, but there’s room for debate on this issue.
October 4th, 2005 at 5:53 am
I don’t disagree with you, Chris. I don’t imagine he’d react well to finding a Starbucks in the church foyer either, but there they are. I should also make it clear that it’s not an overt, stated belief. It’s a subtle, probably instinctual, recruitment tool.
As someone who was raised as a Southern Baptist, I can tell you that the implicit message in much of the teaching is that if you’re a good Christian, God will provide. And by ‘provide’ I’m not talking about having your spiritual needs met, I’m talking about more tangible and immediate rewards. The push for consumerism certainly comes from the government (2/3rds of our economy is based on consumer spending evidently) and it obviously comes from the television (consumerism’s spokestechnology), but it also includes the direction Christianity seems to be taking. After all, the self loathing that leads to a good consumer also makes for a consistently tithing parishioner, so why not leverage your controls?
October 4th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
Not at all, Corvus. If writers had to check facts, the internet would come to a complete halt.
I’m also fascinated by mythos. I keep wondering about personal mythos vs. group mythos.
You remember in Duke Nukem II, when Duke appeared on Oprah to tout his new book, “Why I’m So Great”
It seems like a team would prefer to hear the group mythos, over personal mythos…
There is a place for both, but I still wonder about the balance.
Also, there was an excellent article about company stories here:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960501/1658.html
October 5th, 2005 at 6:28 am
As if this weren’t enough, I’ve got a couple more things to say on the topic, right over here.
December 13th, 2006 at 6:07 am
[...] Seth Godin chatted a bit about the elusive marketing power of myth the other day (link). You may remember that some time ago I wrote (link and link and link) about our personal and cultural myths and touched on the fact that we, by and large, leave a lot of our myth-making to corporations these days. From Bond and Barbie to Mc Donalds and Pfizer, we seem to be content living in a mythic landscape of corporate logos, shallow consumerist characters (Friends, anyone?), and product placement. [...]