If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground“We need to understand our stories because our lives depend upon it.” —Ted Chamberlin The stories we tell each other reflect and shape our deepest feelings. Stories help us live our lives—and are at the heart of our current conflicts. We love and hate because of them; we make homes for ourselves and drive others out on the basis of ancient tales. As Ted Chamberlin vividly reveals, we are both connected by them and separated by their different truths. Whether Jew or Arab, black or white, Muslim or Christian, Catholic or Protestant, man or woman, our stories hold us in thrall and hold others at bay. Like the work of Joseph Campbell and Bruce Chatwin, this vital, engrossing book offers a new way to understand the hold that stories and songs have on us, and a new sense of the urgency of doing so. Drawing on his own experience in many fields—as scholar and storyteller, witness among native peoples and across cultures—Ted Chamberlin takes us on a journey through the tales of different peoples, from North America to Africa and Jamaica. Beautifully written, with insight and deep understanding, If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? examines why it is now more important than ever to attend to what others are saying in their stories and myths—and what we are saying about ourselves. Only then will we understand why they have such power over us. |
From inside the book
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Page 138
... truth . " Oscar Wilde proposed that " the telling of beautiful untrue things " is the proper aim of storytelling , and that the liar " is the very basis of civilized soci- ety . " Plato wanted to keep poets and playwrights out of his ...
... truth . " Oscar Wilde proposed that " the telling of beautiful untrue things " is the proper aim of storytelling , and that the liar " is the very basis of civilized soci- ety . " Plato wanted to keep poets and playwrights out of his ...
Page 147
... truth . Whatever was done within that tradition , provided it was done properly , was true . The truth had to do with ceremony , not evidence . An extreme instance of this kind of dedication to the propri- eties of story and song ...
... truth . Whatever was done within that tradition , provided it was done properly , was true . The truth had to do with ceremony , not evidence . An extreme instance of this kind of dedication to the propri- eties of story and song ...
Page 151
... truth ? How to decide whether we are in the realm of the imagination or in reality ? One trick is to see things from different perspectives , recognizing that stories and songs both express their truths in more or less direct com ...
... truth ? How to decide whether we are in the realm of the imagination or in reality ? One trick is to see things from different perspectives , recognizing that stories and songs both express their truths in more or less direct com ...
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If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground J. Edward Chamberlin Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
aboriginal Achilles Africa Americas asked Australia barbaric believe Blackfoot blackheart buffalo Bunny Wailer Bushmen calculus called century ceremony of belief civilized conflict contradiction course cowboys cultures death Derek Walcott Don McKay Dorze Doukhobor dream essay fact faith father Fort Macleod Gitksan give Grand Coulee Dam Greeks Halldór Laxness herd homeland horses human Iain Crichton Smith Ian Tyson imagination Indian Khomani kind Kowanyama land language listen live look mathematicians mathematics metaphor mountains myths native natural Navajo never Odysseus once painted poem poet question Rastafari Rastafarian reality recognize rhymes riddle river sacred sense settlers sheep units sing society sometimes sorrow speak spirits stories and songs storytellers strange talking tell things thought tion told traditions translated treaties true Truganini truth turned understand West wonder words