The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative

you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories that you are told.

The truth about stories is that that's all we are.

Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous.

What if the creation story in Genesis had featured a flawed deity who was understanding and sympathetic rather than autocratic and rigid? Someone who, in the process of creation, found herself lost from time to time and in need of advice, someone who was willing to accept a little help with the more difficult decisions? What if the animals had decided on their own names? What if Adam and Eve had simply been admonished for their foolishness? I love you, God could have said, but I’m not happy with your behaviour. Let’s talk this over. Try to do better next time. What kind of a world might we have created with that kind of story?

Would it have made a difference? This is the question we always ask after we have given up.

Perhaps we shouldn't be displeased with the 'environmental ethics' we have or the 'business ethics' or the 'political ethics' or any of the myriad of other codes of conduct suggested by our actions. After all, we've created them. We've created the stories that allow them to exist and flourish. They didn't come out of nowhere. They didn't arrive from another planet.

What about human beings? said the animals. Do you think we need human beings? Why not? said the Twins. And as quick as they could the right-handed Twin created women, and the left-handed Twin created men. They don't look too bright, said the animals. We hope they won't be a problem. Don't worry, said the Twins, you guys are going to get along just fine.

And cranky old Jacques Derrida notwithstanding, we do love our dichotomies.

So it’s lucky for me that literary analysis is not about proof, only persuasion. In our cynical world, where suspicion is a necessity, insisting that something is true is not nearly as powerful as suggesting that something might be true.

Once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.

What the camera allows you to do is to invent, to create. That's really what photographs are. Not records of moments, but rather imaginative acts.

For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.