Storytelling...

Well the prompt for today was to write about writing.  I didn’t really have anything in mind so I figured I would take a shot (it was that or write a movie review of “Jem and the Holograms” which I just watched with the kids.) Like I have said in a post previously, I started blogging to bring some structure to trading ideas swimming around in my head when I was a trader by trade.  During that exercise, I found that I enjoyed layering some commentary about social and political topics, or my MINI (actually it was a classic Mini at the time) or other topics that came to mind.  For me that is the draw of writing, it that I can lend some shape to the various things rolling around in my head.

Growing up I did not enjoy writing (as I described previously) but I have always enjoyed great writers.  I was always a big fan of Sci-Fi.  Still remember the first “adult” book I read (which really wasn’t but…)  It was Glory Road by Robert Heinlein.  Loved his writing as stories were so rich in their ability to put you into the world he created as well as to always allow you inside his characters enough that you felt simultaneously part of them as well as an outsider.  Heinlein was great as well because nothing was out of bounds and everything was open to examination, criticism and reimagining.  His book “Job, A Comedy of Justice” remains one of the funniest books I have ever read (even 4 time) with all the characters of religion equally fair game.  “Stranger in a Strange Land” is a book that I still will pick up today.  Although I am young than when it was at its most influential, it is still a book that is as relevant today as it was then.

Not long after, I discover Frank Herbert and the world of Dune.  Herbert take a different approach in that rather than trying to show that everything should be questioned, his take is to create a voratous lavish universe complete exotic inhabits and then layer on Shakespearian histories.  Herbert can almost seem like a European history book set in distant worlds.  The politics were complex and ever changing.  The constant interplay of religious orders, economics and trade would have held Machiavelli’s interest.  At the center is the story of a boy trying to become everything he was told he was destined to do.  Dune could have gone on for volumes more and I would have read them all (just don’t make me watch the movie.)

Today I don’t read as much.  I still like storytellers who can tell difficult stories.  I enjoy the books of Eric Larson who has created his own genre where he tells dark historic tails while also bring in the story of great events in history.  His story of the World’s Fair in Chicago alongside one the evillest serial killing recorded is a remarkable work.  I cannot count how many time I have recommended “The Devil in the White City.”  Coming from Chicago and being an architecture buff, the characters or the fair are legends. 

One of my goals in this exercise is to learn to tell stories…