History Main / InDefenceOfStoryTelling

* In ''Literature/VoyageOfTheBasset'', one of the protagonists, Professor Aisling, is taunted by a fellow academic to defend why mythology is important. He ends up responding that in order to do things like science, the mind must be kept open and given ideas, and mythology is a way to do that.

* This is seen in ''SecondhandLions'' with Garth telling young Walter about him and his brother Hub and their adventures in Africa. When Walter asks Hub if it's true, and how his mother tells so many lies he doesn't know what to believe anymore, Hub tells him if he wants to believe in it to believe. Later, when Walter's mother shows up with an FBI agent ([[spoiler: or so he claims]]) telling him Hub and Garth were actually bank robbers, Walter chooses to believe the stories. [[spoiler: Years later, his faith is vindicated when he meets the grandson of the sheik who was the villain of those stories.]]

->''"What's the use of stories that aren't even true?"''
-->-- The BigBad in ''Literature/HarounAndTheSeaOfStories''

* The importance of stories and legends to the human condition is a frequent theme in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series. ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' is probably the biggest example; the denouement has Death explicitly spell out how concepts like truth and justice as just as made-up as things like [[SantaClaus the Hogfather]] and the Tooth Fairy, but believing in "little lies" like fairy tales and nursery stories trains us to make "big lies" a reality.

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* The Worlds' End story arc of Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' (issues 51-56) is composed of a series of stories told by stranded travelers at an inn positioned between realities, an inverted ''[[Literature/TheCanterburyTales Canterbury Tales]]''. They have a framing story, which is eventually revealed to be one told by its narrator to a bartender. The next-to-last issue of the arc, "Cerements", has a story within a story itself...meaning there's ''five'' layers of storytelling going on at once. One of the characters, the narrator's friend, says she has no stories, and attempts to deconstruct the others told along [[FreudWasRight Freudian lines]]. She decides to stay at the inn when everyone goes on their respective ways, implicitly abandoning her former life for one that will someday be a story worth telling.

* In Literature/VoyageOfTheBasset, one of the protagonists, Professor Aisling, is taunted by a fellow academic to defend why mythology is important. He ends up responding that in order to do things like science, the mind must be kept open and given ideas, and mythology is a way to do that.

* In TheVoyageOfTheBasset, one of the protagonists, Professor Aisling, is taunted by a fellow academic to defend why mythology is important. He ends up responding that in order to do things like science, the mind must be kept open and given ideas, and mythology is a way to do that.

* One of the main points of Michael Ende's ''{{Literature/The Neverending Story}}''.

* One of the main points of Michael Ende's ''{{Literature/TheNeverendingStory}}''.

* The movie ''BigFish''. It's more about how a fake interesting life is better than boring old reality, but it fits in there.

* This is seen in ''SecondhandLions'' with Garth telling young Walter about him and his brother Hub and their adventures in Africa. Later, when Walter asks Hub if it's true, and how his mother tells so many lies he doesn't know what to believe anymore, Hub tells him if he wants to believe in it to believe. Later, when Walter's mother shows up with an FBI agent ([[spoiler: or so he claims]]) telling him Hub and Garth were actually bank robbers, Walter chooses to believe the stories. [[spoiler: Years later, his faith is vindicated when he meets the grandson of the sheik who was the villain of those stories.]]

* This is seen in ''SecondhandLions'' with Garth telling young Walter about him and his brother Hub and their adventures in Africa. Later, when Walter asks Hub if it's true, and how his mother tells so many lies he doesn't know what to believe anymore, Hub tells him if he wants to believe in it to believe. Later, Walter's mother shows up with an FBI agent ([[spoiler: or so he claims]]) telling him Hub and Garth were actually bank robbers, Walter chooses to believe the stories. [[spoiler: Years later, his faith is vindicated when he meets the grandson of the sheik who was the villian of those stories.]]

->''Though all the crannies of the world we filled''

->''We make still by the law in which we're made.''

->"What's the use of stories that aren't even true?"

* In the 1967 musical adaptation of ''DoctorDolittle'', Matthew's first song, to Tom, praises the doctor for his [[InformedAttribute inventiveness and love of story-telling]]. He later sings a song to Emma where he defends the doctor's whimsy, explaining that the world truly is a wonderful place, but that it takes someone with a healthy imagination to see it.

->- [[http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html "Mythopoeia"]], by {{Creator/J R R Tolkien}}

->- The BigBad in ''{{Literature/Haroun And The Sea Of Stories}}''

!!Examples:

* In The Studio Ghibli film ''Anime/WhisperOfTheHeart'', the main character goes through a period of personal growth as she pursues her writing at the expense of her school work.

* The Worlds' End story arc of Neil Gaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' (issues 51-56) is composed of a series of stories told by stranded travelers at an inn positioned between realities, an inverted ''CanterburyTales''. They have a framing story, which is eventually revealed to be one told by its narrator to a bartender. The next-to-last issue of the arc, "Cerements," has a story within a story itself...meaning there's *five* layers of storytelling going on at once. One of the characters, the narrator's friend, says she has no stories, and attempts to deconstruct the others told along [[FreudWasRight Freudian lines]]. She decides to stay at the inn when everyone goes on their respective ways...and ceases to *have ever existed* in the reality she and the narrator and left. DontTryThisAtHome, kids.

* This is the Baron's overall point in ''TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen''. He knows that what he's telling people is patently ridiculous, but it's more interesting than boring old reality.
* In the 1952 movie ''Hans Christian Andersen'', the title character is run out of town for his story-telling. He goes to Copenhagen, where he makes it big, and is eventually welcomed home with open arms! The movie also provides at least one example of how story-telling can be useful: When Andersen meets a boy who feels insecure about his shaved head, he cheers him up with the story of "The Ugly Duckling".

* Salman Rushdie's children's novel ''{{Literature/Haroun And The Sea Of Stories}}'' actually has ''two'' villains with very different attitudes towards stories. One insists that all stories are pointless, while the other believes they can be very useful - as tools of propoganda. Unusually, this novel provides an example of a story being put to a realistic, practical use. At the end, Rashid tells the (true but fantastic-sounding) story of his and Haroun's adventures. The people who hear it are so inspired that they rise up and run a corrupt politician out of town.
* In ''{{Literature/The Neverending Story}}'', Fantasia is sick because humans have stopped coming there (i.e. dreaming and telling stories). However we're told that this is also making the human world sick. The job of those who travel to Fantasia is not merely to save it from destruction, but to "make both worlds well".

* {{Creator/J R R Tolkien}} was once famously challenged on this issue by his friend {{Creator/C S Lewis}}. He responded in classic Tolkien fashion by writing a poem, entitled [[http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html "Mythopoeia"]]. In it he affirms that story-telling is not merely defensible, but a divine ''right''!

* In The Studio Ghibli film ''WhisperOfTheHeart'', the main character goes through a period of personal growth as she pursues her writing at the expense of her school work.

* One of the characters of the AlvinMaker series is an itinerant storyteller who often defends the art.

* ''DragonAgeII'': Varric is a professional storyteller, as well as TheNarrator of the story, who obviously embellishes many parts of it. In-story, he lampshades how important a well-told story is, stating that "History is just the best stories, the ones that last".

* J. R. R. Tolkien was once famously challenged on this issue by his friend C. S. Lewis. He responded in classic Tolkien fashion by writing a poem, entitled [[http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html "Mythopoeia"]]. In it he affirms that story-telling is not merely defensible, but a divine ''right''!

* J. R. R. Tolkien was once famously challenged on this issue by his friend C. S. Lewis. He responded in classic Tolkien fashion by writing a poem, entitled "Mythopoeia". In it he affirms that story-telling is not merely defensible, but a divine ''right''!

* In The Studio Ghibli film ''Whisper of the Heart'', the main character goes through a period of personal growth as she pursues her writing at the expense of her school work.

* In ''TheNeverendingStory'', Fantasia is sick because humans have stopped coming there (i.e. dreaming and telling stories). However we're told that this is also making the human world sick. The job of those who travel to Fantasia is not merely to save it from destruction, but to "make both worlds well".