For a while, I used to want to be a bard. I was inspired by this wonderful
singer. I had been writing an Epic poem (that is what the really long story poems are called) and I was determined to learn to play the guitar. I kind of still want to, but more of a hobby and something to do for entertainment purposes;
"Wow, this party is so lame. I wish we had some source of entertainment."
Then I jump up and pull a guitar out of my purse, singing, "Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin."
(sorry, really big nerd moment there)
Anyway, I still have the poem somewhere, gathering dust and being eaten by moths or something. I have a ton of stories like that. I started them, then just sort of gave them up.
"If I don't have a point to make, why bother."
I mean, I had read so many books and seen so many movies that really didn't seem to have a point. It was aimless and pointless, confusing and not entertaining. So I came to the conclusion, if a story doesn't have a point, don't do it. In order for a story to be highly successful, it MUST have a point. Period. No questions asked. However, I was still unsure about my theory, so I began looking at my favorite books and movies to figure things out.
Have you ever read 'Beowulf'? It is an Epic poem about a man who saves a town from two monsters; Grendel and his mother, and in doing so, becomes a hero. I loved the character; a man willing to risk everything for people he hardly knows. It is one of my favorite books, and it has no point.
The Hobbit is my second favorite book, (as you can probably guess, I am really excited about the movie. Why it's split into three parts though, still remains a mystery to me) and it has no point. I realized that most books that I have read and enjoyed are the ones without a point. Many of my favorite movies are ones that lack a purpose. But what was the difference? What was the difference between these seemingly pointless stories and the others?
The answer came to me while I was reading an article from Empire.com. They had an interview with Wally Pfister, director Christopher Nolan's cinematographer. He was telling everyone about his work and the movies he had done with Christopher Nolan. The topics of politics came up, and he said,
"Chris rarely takes any kind of political position, so as with every single film he’s ever made, I think there’s a deliberate ambiguity there about what he might be saying. Perhaps he IS really just telling a story without taking any position or political point of view. I always get a kick out of that because people are always trying to find messages. They don’t exist! Not in that way. He loves creating ambiguity for the audience and leaving them to try to decide what the answer is. If you ask him, he’ll just shrug and smile and leave it up to you!"
The best stories are the ones that let you decide what the message is. They let you decide what you want to take away from it rather then what the storyteller tries to push into your head. (I'm talking about fiction right now, which of course does not include non-fiction and the Bible.) If you think about it, a lot of our favorite stories are ones that let the audience decide the point.
The difference between "Christopher Nolan" message stories and other pointless stories is that the others really have no point, the author just wrote something. "Christopher Nolan" stories have only one point; tell a story people will enjoy. That's what has been lost in today's world.
Stories should not be written because the author wanted to write something for themselves, or to get money, or to just become famous. Stories unite and entertain. That's what it was meant for. It's what a child yearns for before bed and why people go to see movies. They can inspire and motivate. They can make us laugh and cry. They are stories and they were made for us.
"If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they
are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive."
—Barry Lopez, in Crow and Weasel
Anyone care for another go at "Dovakhin"?
