propps to the storyteller

Robert McCrum, musing over film and literature’s return to the classics of Ancient Greece and Rome, asks,

How many stories are there to tell in the world? One school of thought holds that there are just 10 archetypal tales around which novelists spin more or less elegant variations. I remember being persuaded, years ago, that there were as few as seven basic plots at the heart of our literature, or was it three?

Or, my own question: What if we only recognize a narrative as a story if we've heard it called a story? Or: What if our definition of "story,” more prescriptive than descriptive, limits the number of stories that can be told? (But also, in defining something abstract, such as art or literature, aren't we always prescribing its qualities?)

Posted by nchicha at August 4, 2003 10:50 AM