{"id":4528,"date":"2013-11-10T17:14:52","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T17:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/?p=4528"},"modified":"2023-07-29T18:14:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T22:14:39","slug":"the-brighton-readings-part-two-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/2013\/11\/10\/the-brighton-readings-part-two-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brighton Readings: Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Notes<\/a>Long ago, when I was first entertaining notions of sharing my stories with a wide audience, I came across a passage in Ben Bova’s Notes to a Science Fiction Writer<\/em><\/a>. It describes a photograph that he saw in a book titled The Faces of Man<\/em>. Bova writes:<\/p>\n

[The photograph] shows an African village, where most of the people have gathered around an old, withered man who is evidently the village story-teller. He is at a high point in the evening’s story; his arms are raised over his head, his mouth is agape, his eyes wide. And the whole village is staring at him, equally agape and wide-eyed, breathless to find out what happens next.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That is what story-telling is all about.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve read a lot of books about writing since then, but that passage has always stuck with me.<\/p>\n

\"Storyteller\"<\/a>The act of presenting stories from memory is nothing new. It is clearly working for the storyteller in the photograph, and I believe it can still work today. Not as a stunt, but as an effective way of sharing fiction with a live audience.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve been exploring this mode of storytelling in venues as varied as the KGB Fantastic Fiction Series<\/a>, GenCon Writers Symposium<\/a>, PAISTA, The University of Brighton, and World Fantasy. The approach seems to be working. In any event, I\u2019m having a lot of fun following in the tradition of that African storyteller.<\/p>\n

Let me show you what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n

Below is a video from last week\u2019s Reading Caf\u00e9 at The World Fantasy Convention, featuring a reading of \u201cStep on a Crack\u201d from Visions: Short Fantasy and SF<\/i><\/a>. It’s one of three stories I presented that day. The entire performance was recorded, and I may be posting additional segments in the coming weeks, but, for now, here\u2019s a peek at what went down when some members of the World Fantasy village gathered to listen to the 21st-Century Scop.<\/p>\n