Story, Schmory

Not What I Had in Mind

            At last we are seeing some detachment from storification, which is to say the glorification of "story."

            Headline in the Times: "A Movie Is More Than a Story." Beatrice Loayza, covering the New York Film Festival:

            "It's time to take a stand against the tyranny of 'story.' In Hollywood these days, 'story' and 'storyteller' are privileged terms, seemingly interchangeable with 'films' and anyone who makes them -- a distressing development considering the medium's wild range of possibilities.

            "The 'story' framing used to feel fresh . . . I can't think of a single director in this year's beautifully eclectic lineup who would call themselves a 'storyteller' with a straight face -- outside of a pitch meeting with investors."

            Well yeah. Would even your cranky old prime-of-anectodage great-uncle, unless there was money in it, introduce himself as a storyteller? We who narrate want to draw fresh blood, not to be cornered into a pose.

            Now we have a word for what we don’t want to do. Narrativize.