Ira Glass on narrative

So obviously someone credited with bringing narrative and literary non-fiction to the fore of radio is going to talk a lot about narrative. :) And this means there is a wonderful selection of resources out there regarding narrative and narrative construction.

One of my favorites is that short series that Ira Glass did for current TV that you can watch on youtube.

• Ira Glass on Storytelling #1
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #2
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #3
• Ira Glass on Storytelling #4

Also, in Jesse Thorn's interview with Ira Glass, they discuss narrative a little. Jesse asks him a great question about whether or not he sees the narrative bias in the media is problematic, to which Ira admits that it can be in a news setting (creates this "horse race" story rather than a presentation of more factual information). I always hear so much praise for narrative, its natural and basically universal presence in human thought and conversation, and its benefits in remembering, relating, and learning information, so it hadn't occurred to me that narrative is not always the best or most effective structure.

They also talked about the Improv everywhere story and Jesse mentioned that he was upset by the fact that the story told on This American Life was not accurate or representative of what Improv Everywhere does or even the spirit of Improv Everywhere. Ira responds, "I have no interest in Improv everywhere" not the straight news story that is representative but rather a story that is compelling b/c it has a plot and characters (in this case, the time when they messed up.) It's not "representative" of the group but it is a good story, the time it didn't work, the time something went wrong. This is a good point about narrative too - the conflict is what makes it interesting.

So it seems that narrative can be problematic in the sense that it demands certain qualities in order to be compelling, and sometimes the reality or truth of the situation doesn't offer those qualities. It reminds me of the psychology studies we were reading in my Developmental Cultural Psychology class about didactic narratives in European-American homes vs. Chinese homes. In the American situation, parents downplay children's wrongdoings and instead highlight what is funny or enjoyable about the child's transgression. And they also love to tell "hell-raising" stories about themselves when they were kids. This is puzzling and maybe even appalling to the Chinese parents, who emphasize respect for elders. My thought while reading these articles was a curiosity about the role that our entertainment-heavy culture has in our own interpersonal storytelling. Do Americans feel the need to make humorous, entertaining stories, casting ourselves as interesting characters and manipulating the narrative to be more compelling than it perhaps really is? How does this compare to other cultures general storytelling practices?