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This week, I really enjoyed the Pueblo Indian perspective of literature. Specifically the line that, to paraphrase, said that the Pueblos believed that the storyteller does not enter stories into you, but rather draws them out. I was thinking about this while going through the news last night in an attempt to burst a bit of the Bryn Mawr bubble. I came across a story about the Writers’ Guild strike. I only read a little bit, and cannot profess to know the logistics, but there was one passage that interested me. Apparently in the year of the birth, 1988, there was also a Writers’ strike. During this time some producers attempted to write snippets for their talk shows. However, the attempt failed. When I think about this, I wonder if it was not because they could not draw the stories out of people.

Isn’t that what Bettelheim suggested that fairytales do for children, draw out their understanding of themselves? Isn’t that what tacit understanding does in a dream, creates a story out of your experiences? A storyteller is important. She is the friend, the guardian, the punisher, the psychologist, the teacher, and awakener all wrapped up together. She is “Thought Women” of the Pueblo creation stories. She creates the universe…