Selling Stories

Huge turning points in human history have been marked by the rise and improvement of industrialization. In early, rural societies, storytellers were journeymen that had mastered their craft and travelled to sell their work, collecting stories to bring home and share with their families, friends, and apprentices, creating a network of stories and storytellers. With the advent of the printing press, stories could be written, reproduced, and spread with never-before-seen speed and accuracy. With this came the rise of the novel and the decline of oral storytelling. Come the industrial revolution, this process was intensified, leaving storytelling to special occasions or spare quiet moments. With the rise of film, stories took on a whole new meaning and became cultural touchstones if their box-office impact was sufficiently impressive. And therein is the true driver- the drive and desire for profit. 

Industrialization meant that art could be produced and re-produced faster than ever before, allowing artistic creations to grace every household. But with this came a degradation of art: a photo could only be copied so many times before it lost its sheen and clarity, a story had to be copyrighted so that it wouldn’t be stolen or copied, a moive had to be rushed out so that it could speak to the present moment before the present moment passed. Now we are adrift in a world where there is a twinned need for new things and an overabundance of offerings. Industrialization has caught up with artists again with the advent of AI technology where computers can replicate and re-arrange existing works into a new kind of “collage” of what came before. It is important that art be accessible and available to any and all, but there is a danger in the distancing of the artist, the storyteller, from the work that they created.