Storytelling

Nothing in our history has better brought us together more then storytelling. A good story can bring together even the most distant of strangers, because as humans, as Professor Barnhurst clearly brings to our attention, all of our stories share patterns. Whether happy, sad, or anywhere in between, the stories of humankind share tell-tale patterns that make communicating simpler for us. To better prove this theory, the Professor asks that the students pair up in two's. At first it's clear that some of the students in the room feel uncomfortable getting up and moving around to pair up, but by the time they are sharing their stories, the room (as heard in the video) seems to get quite loud. Prof. Barnhurst simply asks that the students take notes on their partners story, and to do so in one minute.

After each partners minute has expired, he then asks the students to group up into groups of 4 and look at the notes and see if they notice any patterns in the stories told/ the notes taken. The things they found in common were that there was always an event, with an average amount of detail, common concepts that led to some sort of crisis, a setting, and that it either had something to do with family or school. Now although that may just seem like random facts, what the professor goes on to explain is that these components are key to storytelling, and also huge in helping us communicate.

Next he explains the idea that there is simply no way to just tell a story without some sort of vocalized introduction. People do not simply stand up and begin a story out of the blue, but rather present an abstract (a term we also went over in class) or an annunciation that you will be narrating. However, we all know that people don't get up and say "I'm about to narrate!". This is where the idea of "unintentional verbal" communication comes into play. In most instances, before telling a story the storyteller will say something like "Oh that reminds me of this one time..." or "Want to know what really got me going the other day?". Although these are just simple statements or questions, what we don't realize is that we are unintentionally commanding the attention of everyone within earshot.

Another key concept that Professor Barnhurst goes on to explain right before the video cuts out is the difference between interpretation and judgment. He explains that interpretation is the idea of what the story is going to be about. Once we as humans identify the patterns of a story, we simply categorize it into what type of story it may be and then choose whether or not we would like to continue to listen or just "walk out of the room" as the professor says. Right before he goes into judgement the video cuts out, but it seems that what he was going for was that judgement remains to those who are listening and what they think of the person after the story, where interpretation is simply an understanding of what kind of story is being told.