Paradoxically Speaking:just one of the ways children’s folktales engage listeners

Brian W. SturmSchool of Information & Library Science

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillsturm@ils.unc.edu

• “Yeki-bood; yeki-nabood…” = “There was one; there was not one.” (Iranian)• “Once there was and was not in Ancient Armenia…” (Armenian)• “Once upon a time, and a time before that…” (Scandinavian)• “There was, there was, and yet there was not…” (Georgian)• “Once upon a time, and a very good time too, though it was not in my time, nor your

time, nor for the matter of that in any one’s time…” (English)• “Once on a time and twice on a time, and all times together as ever I heard tell of…”

(English)• “Long, long ago, when some folks were already dead and other not yet born, there

lived…” (Tartar)• “Before the beginning of time, before the beginning of everything, before there was a

beginning...”• “In a land that never was, in a time that could never be…”• “In a place, neither near nor far, and a time, neither now nor then…”• “It happened, it did not happen, it perhaps could have happened in the tents of our

neighbors…”• “Once on the far side of yesterday…”• “Once there was and twice there wasn’t…”• “Once upon a time, in a time and place beyond measure…”• “Far beyond the edge of the world, there lived…”

Paradoxical Story Beginnings

Storylistening Experience

Storylistening TRANCE Experience

Storylistening TRANCE Experience by contextual element

1. Description: of situations, feelings, motives intimacy (knowing is caring)

2. Jeopardy: unites us against a common foe3. Sympathy (feeling for): for undeserved misfortune empathy

(feeling with)4. Likability:

1. Humor: we like those who help us laugh2. Excellence: we like those who excel or are powerful3. Nice

5. Idiosyncrasies: make characters deep and human6. Familiarity: setting, expectations, actions make us feel comfortable7. Novelty: unpredictable specifics keep our intellects engaged & build

suspense8. Truth: not of fact but of character (i.e., “acting in character”)9. First person perspective: video games, the deictic shift

Caring for Characters

Deictic Shift

So What?

1. Immersive stories/presentations:1. Are more memorable2. Are more emotionally evocative3. Are more persuasive4. Are more fun

2. “Characters” and “settings” are not necessarily fictional1. We are characters in our own life stories (“peak

experiences”)*2. We are characters in our institutions’ stories

• Maslow, Abraham. 1964. Religion, values and peak experiences. NY: Viking• Csikszentmihályi, Mihály. 2008. Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. NY: Harper.

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