I have so many different reactions to this I don't know where to begin, so I guess I'll begin at the end, with Annie and Danny.
I don't know if I've ever been so moved so quickly by a story. Just the little bit on Annie and Danny in these four-ish pages is enough to evoke an emotional response equal to or greater than my response to the opening scene of Up. The best part about this too is that it's real-it's not fictional. Annie and Danny make a real-life story that would put the Notebook to shame. And this is a perfect example of Story Corps achieving its goal. It has instantly proven to me how we don't need to make up stories to find amazing tales, but instead we only need to look next door.
I had never heard of anything being done like this project before, but now that I know it exists, I only wonder why it isn't any bigger. I am happy that these recordings are making their way into the Library of Congress because I want it to be known that we are not a people completely consumed by celebrities and fabricated people--that we can find interest in the people all around us. I think that Story Corps does a very good job of showing the beauty of the everyday person. I don't really know how exactly to respond to this article because I am in such support of everything they're doing that I feel like I can only hash out cliched responses about what I just read. I just love everything about this.
I especially love the title, "Listening Is An Act of Love." As I first started reading about what Story Corps is, it reminded me a lot of therapy more than of storytelling. Studies published by professors from our University talk about how simply writing down one's thoughts is perhaps one of the best forms of therapy available as it gets people to work through situations in their mind-it forces people to think about what they are writing about. This to me immediately struck me as an auditory version of writing therapy. Contrary to popular belief, therapy isn't just for those that suffer great mental distress. It is also for people in everyday life. It can help people deal with almost any situation better. This way of sitting down with someone and talking things through, for many people, seems to be therapy. I'm sure for many more its just a way to have a good time and share good stories. And I love that. But I also feel like they stumbled onto something more in conceiving this project. One of the stated goals of Story Corps is to help its participants and I believe they are doing that in ways that are even deeper than they could have envisioned when first beginning Story Corps.
P.S.: I was much more into this reading and this story than I thought I would be. This is amazing.
--Josh Hernandez
Josh, great post. I think you are exactly right about the therapeutic nature of interviews, and the kind of catharsis it can bring. I hadn't thought about this in connection to writing in a journal but I think you are right that it serves a similar function.
ReplyDeleteSomething else related to your last post that you might find interesting-- a series that NPR has been doing about 'mom and dad's record collection.'
http://www.npr.org/series/154365306/mom-and-dads-record-collection
I love this piece. I completely understand, as I have completely memorized the song Asereje by Las Ketchup for the same reason--even though the song is hilariously bad. I completely relate to this piece. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAlso looking back at this posting I realized I didn't even mention the 'Creating Powerful Radio' article--I liked it, it just didn't hit me as emotionally or quickly as the Story Corps story. Good advice, just not good story.