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"Stories
have their own life cycle. Stories that were once true and potent grow old and
infirm, and eventually they die. Today this is happening to some of our deepest
stories, the great myths of our civilization. In particular, two related
stories have created the world we know today, and both of them are nearing
their end.
The first of these world-creating stories is the Story of
Ascent. It is our story of the people. It says the humanity has risen from a
state of nature, a state of scientific ignorance and technological impotence,
to becoming nature's lords and masters. We have harnessed natural forces,
penetrated the mysteries of the universe, overcome natural limitations with
technology.
Someday, says the story, our understanding and control will
be complete, thanks to nanotechnology, space travel, infinite energy, social
and genetic engineering, etc. Humanity: conquerors of nature, onward and upward
forever!
The second defining story of our civilization is our Story of
Self: that we are discrete and separate beings living in an objective universe.
You and I are separate - mutually dependent, perhaps, in a practical way, but
independent of each other or anyone else for our basic being-ness. From the
selfish gene of biology to the rational actor of economics to the
flesh-encapsulated soul of religion, all of our ideologies are aligned with our
story of self. And, from the medical system to the criminal justice system to
the money system, all of our social institutions enact it.
Both of
these defining stories are crumbling around us. Neither is true any more. Few
people today greet the Story of Ascent with the same near-universal fervor of,
say, the 1950s, as all the promises of technotopia (the end of disease,
unlimited energy, a leisure society, space colonies) fade into legend.
Collapse, not ascent, is the new meme, and this collapse ushers in new
realization of connectedness, of interdependency, and along with it the end of
the story of the discrete and separate self. The independent, unencumbered man
of reason no longer beckons as an ideal: we crave now community, intimacy and
connection." - Charles Eisenstein
fableA
falsehood; a lie.
Fiction; untruth; falsehood.
A story about
legendary individuals and exploits.
A
deliberately false or improbable account.
A
short moral story (often with
animal characters).
A
story about mythical or
supernatural
beings or events.
A usually short narrative making an
edifying or cautionary point
and often employing as
characters animals that
speak and
act like
humans.
A feigned story
or tale, intended to instruct or amuse;
a fictitious
narration intended
to enforce some useful
truth or precept; an apologue.
The
plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an
epic or dramatic poem.
Any story told to excite
wonder;
common talk; the theme of
talk.
Long before the written
word, in primitive times,
stories were passed on from generation to generation by
word of mouth. Many of the fables and
fairytales we
know today were
based on those old stories.
Aesop was a storyteller and
philosopher who
lived in ancient Greece and
wrote the stories down in 300
BC. His stories featured animals as the main characters, facing the same
situations we face every day. His stories showed how a
problem can be solved or how a lesson is
learned, dealing with
emotions such as jealousy, laziness, and
lying.
Hans Christian Anderson, who
lived in Denmark in the 19th century,
as a child was considered ugly and had
very few friends. This caused him to read quite a bit and dream even more. Hans moved to Copenhagen and tried to
become an actor when, at 14
years of age, his father died. At the age of 30, he
decided to write down the stories he had been concocting and telling to
children across the countryside to pay
for his travels. These stories, such as "The Princess and
the Pea" "The Emperor's New Clothes"
and "The Ugly Duckling" have become treasured
classics told to children the
world over.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were
brothers who lived in Germany in the 19th century.
After their parents died, the brothers traveled
around the country and gathered stories from the local
inhabitants. Upon the publication of the tales they had gathered, the
brothers became famous. Included in their collection
of stories are "The
Wolf and the Fox", "Hansel and Gretel"and "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves".
The stories of
Aesop,
Hans Christian Anderson and
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm have become
intertwined with our culture, enriching and enhancing all of
our lives with their
entertaining tales and lessons.
In the
New Testament fable is
defined as the traditions and
speculations, "cunningly devised fables", of the
Jews on religious questions (1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:4;
Titus 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:16). In such passages the word
fable means any thing
false and unreal. But the word fable is used as almost equivalent to parable. Thus
we have (1) the fable of Jotham, in which the trees are
spoken of as choosing a king (Judg. 9:8-15); and
(2) that of the cedars of Lebanon and the
thistle as Jehoash's
answer to Amaziah (2 Kings 14:9).
A body or
collection of stories.
Brief description
accompanying an illustration.
A
story about mythical or
supernatural
beings or events.
An inscription or a title on
an object, such as a coin.
A
romanticized or popularized myth of modern times.
One that inspires legends or achieves
legendary fame.
A story regarding saints;
especially, one of a marvelous
nature.
An explanatory table or list of the
symbols appearing on a map or chart.
Any
story coming down from the past, but not verifiable by
historical record; a
myth; a fable.
An unverified story
handed down from earlier
times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.
That which is appointed to be
read; especially, a chronicle or
register of the lives of saints,
formerly
read at matins, and in the refectories
of religious houses.
An inscription, motto,
or title, esp. one surrounding the field in a medal or coin,
or placed upon
an heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or
illustration.
Legend has it that
there was a queen named Scheherazade
who had been captured and sentenced to death by the
Sultan Schahriah of Arabia. In order
to save her life she told
him tales of intrigue and adventure, stopping at the most exciting part, so he
would have to keep her alive for one more
night to hear
the ending of the story.
After 1,001 nights, the sultan granted her
freedom and she became his wife. She then recorded
the stories so all could
enjoy them. These stories included 'Sinbad the Sailor', 'Ali Baba and The Forty
Thieves', 'The Barber's story of his
First Brother', 'The story of the
Husband and the Parrot' and 'Aladdin and the Magic Lamp'.
Legend
comes from the Latin adjective legenda, "for
reading, to be
read," which referred only to
written stories, not to
traditional stories
transmitted orally from generation to generation. This restriction also applied
to the English word legend when it was first used in
the late 14th century in reference to written
accounts of saints' lives, but ever since the 15th
century legend has been used to refer to traditional stories as
well. Today a legend can also be an
individual or achievement worthy
of inspiring such a story.
Anyone or any thing whose fame
promises to be enduring, even if the renown is
created more by the mass
media than by oral tradition. Thus
we speak of the legendary
accomplishments of a major-league baseball star or
the legendary voice of a famous opera singer. This usage is
common
journalistic hyperbole, and 55 percent of
the Usage Panel accepts it.
"When we forget that our stories are in fact
stories, we end up helplessly lying to ourselves and the world, because the map is always a distortion of
that mapped.
Over thousands of years, the creative play of story-telling
has come to enslave us, and we have lost the
storyteller's consciousness. Finally we are
awakening, as the effort to
maintain the pretense overwhelms us.
We cannot maintain the story any
more. The story of linearity, the story of
separation, the lonely story of a discrete self marooned in a world of
other." - Charles
Eisenstein
Story is defined
as:
A lie.
A tale.
A
trivial lie.
An anecdote.
A short story.
A short account of news.
A
new
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