“This meeting of the Albuquerque Writers Group will come to order!” said Robin with mock sternness. Birch and Pansy tried to stifle their laughter.
“Sorry,” said Birch, looking at the ceiling to try not to laugh again. “Ok, ok, I’m all right now. But you have to admit, that story about Violet’s nephew was hilarious.”
“Who wants another coffee?” asked Violet, getting up from the table. “I need another latté.”
Violet went to the counter and passed along everyone’s order. ‘
“What were you saying, again, Pansy?” she asked, sitting back down.
“Words versus stories,” said Pansy. “Humans are story-telling creatures, we all agree about that, right? And you need words to tell stories. But what about needing stories to explain words?”
“Not all words,” pointed out Robin. “If I hold this up…” she brandished her coffee cup, “and say “cup,” that’s all you need. And to call that a story is just too much of a stretch.”
“I’m totally there about stories,” said Violet. Like Jonathan Franzen says: ‘there is an enormous need for long, elaborate, complex stories, such as can only be written by an author concentrating alone, free from the deafening chatter of Twitter.’”
“I’m not sure that’s quite the same thing,” said Birch. “Franzen starts out there talking about a need for stories, but then takes a left turn into talking about kinds of stories, and about his own working style.”
“Birch is right,” said Pansy. “After all, Jane Austen liked to do her writing in busy settings where she was interrupted all the time. Not by Twitter, of course, but still pretty much the opposite of Franzen’s ‘concentrating alone’ setting. He’s just talking about himself. As usual,” she added.
“Can we please not open the Jane Austin versus Any Modern Writer debate again?” said Robin.
“Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories is about how stories are part of the natural order of the world, and they all flow together into a great ocean,” offered Birch. “I’ve always thought that he was trying to explain how central to human experience stories really are.”
“And the antagonist in that book is trying to silence all stories,” said Robin. “So yeah, stories are important. I mean, come on, we’re writers; of course we agree with that.”
“I’m trying to explore something a little bit different,” said Pansy. “Stories are important, but not only that; I’ve been thinking they don’t just use language, but they’re part of it. Stories are made of words, but words are also made of stories.”
“Robin’s coffee cup is just a cup,” said Birch, nodding, but you can’t think ‘cup’ without conjuring up all sorts of associations in your mind. Your cup runneth over with stories, Robin.”
Robin rolled her eyes. “I can think of a cup without thinking about anything else,” she sniffed. “It’s just a matter of mental discipline, that’s all.”
“Well,” said Pansy thoughtfully, “maybe you can…”
“…and maybe she can’t…” said Birch.
“…but what about another word?” continued Pansy. She spoke quickly, before Birch and Robin could do more than glare at each other for a moment.
“What word are you thinking of?” asked Robin.
“There are loads of them,” said Pansy. “Words whose meanings can’t exist without stories. Words that carry stories inside them. “
“It sounds like the words you’re talking about are bigger than stories,” said Robin.
“I don’t know if ‘bigger’ or ‘smaller’ is quite the idea I’m going for,” said Pansy. “But how about the word ‘ghost’? You can’t hold up what it means like you can a cup. The whole existence of the word, and its meaning too, can’t exist without stories. And the stories can’t exist without the word. So when we say stories are part of human nature, it goes further than that. It’s about words, too. The words contain the stories that contain the words.”
Everyone stared at Pansy for a moment. The moment was shattered by the barista shouting “Violet!” Their coffee order was ready. As they all got up to fetch their lattés and cappuccinos, Birch said “you know, I was reading something in the New York Times Review of Books…”
“Yes!” said Pansy, “that article by Tim Parks! That’s what made me start thinking about all of this!”
“OK, I’ll go read it too,” said Violet. “What’s the date?”
“March 26, 2012,” replied Pansy. “It’s pretty interesting.”
Note: that’s a real article. You can still find it online, and it really is interesting.
