There is one thing I learned when studying history and that is the primal need for connection for any being with even a modicum of intelligence, especially humans. There is no greater building block to meeting that need than the moments shared through stories and storytelling.
There is a historical record of our social needs going back to our hunting and gathering days. Our ancestors sat around the fire and told one another about their experiences, or communicated how they were able to take down a mammoth, or where the best berries were, or even tales of predators they had encountered in the woods.
There has always been some form of folkloric allegory at play, and superstitions that sprang from commonality which formed into religion from there. All from the human connection based in stories. It’s how we have survived as long as we have–the intelligence to take from our environment and communicate our experiences to those around us.
During modern times, we have more methods than our ancestors did in regards to being able to keep up with our social needs and how things are happening around us. Social media, television, books, internet – all built on stories. Fiction, non fiction – but with the modern filters we experience these days, it’s so very hard to tell what in our world is fact. Our craving for something tangible has left us all feeling ravenous.
The pandemic certainly didn’t help. It forced us all into our own boxes, with very little chance to embrace the commonalities we all have, to experience and celebrate the flaws that make us human. Matter of fact, it seems that over time we have done the exact opposite of seeking human connection and have used the filter of social media to blur our humanity. In doing so, we’ve become less connected than we’ve ever been to one another, our flaws feeling like only our own as seemingly perfect people parade across our For You pages, only further isolating ourselves. Our stories cannot be shared when we don’t find commonality.
So what does this have to do with books, which have always been considered a luxury item throughout history? As an avid reader and book blogger, books are the one thing in this world aside from my family and friends that allow me and people like me to experience true human connection. There have been so many times that I’ve emerged from a book with an overwhelming drive to discuss it and have been lucky enough to discover another reader just as driven to do the same.
Often, book people speak in a tongue meant only for those who have opened the same book and experienced the same exact stories. Avid readers are passionate people who come from all walks of life and filter these tales through their personal experiences, and by finding a community of individuals whose eyes have touched the same words, we can experience not only the story we have read, but also understand ourselves and one another better through personal interpretation.
When you find the people who love the same books you do or challenge your preconceived notions through the filter of the story you’ve both read, there is a feeling of being part of something greater. Something raw and primal and real, regardless of the genre.
One could argue that television may give you the same ability toward human connection, and I would only minimally agree. I enjoy a good TV show, but there are visual artists that have already filled in the blanks for you. It’s hard to take something that has already been interpreted for more than one of your senses and reinterpret it through your filter to the same depths that are allowed when reading. It’s one reason readers often say the dreaded phrase “The book was better.” It’s because to us, it was.
Our ability to take words in black and white and color them in our heads in a way that feels so very personal.We braid them with our deeply rooted beliefs and emotions and create for ourselves an experience no film maker can hope to touch. It’s not because they didn’t create something beautiful, it’s just that the connection we have with the story will always be unique to us and the community we share it with.
In summation, when asked, “What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?,” my answer is books. Without books, I miss so many chances to connection, so many chances to learn new things, or live a thousand lives I could never dream up on my own. I would miss out on a community of people who are just as impassioned as I am about the work an author puts in to create an art form that can be enjoyed in different ways by so many others.
From fireside folklore to book club meetings over FaceTime, the method of storytelling may have evolved, but our need for stories is eternal.
How do you meet the need when it calls?
Always Lost in Words 