In magic there is a lot of pretending, just like there is in storytelling. A famous magician once said that he was "a man pretending to be a magician who was pretending to be a wizard." Pretending is one of those things that many children gradually grow out of as they become older especially in our own country as TV, video games, and the internet replace the imagination and the need for pretending with numerous time wasters. Pretending was one of my favorite things to do as a child. I would often get dragged to parties or to my parents work where there were no other children. I would be left on my own for hours, so I just naturally developed a strong imagination. I would pretend I was all kinds of things (most often a Jedi Knight with a lightsaber, as I said I'm a huge geek).
The word pretend comes from the Latin "prætendere" meaning to 'stretch in front, put forward, allege.' Prætendere comes from prae meaning "before" and tendere meaning "to stretch." So literally when we pretend we stretch something before our minds, we put something forward in our thoughts.
In storytelling we pretend quite frequently taking on personas and making ourselves into our characters. When we do this we are in essence placing the characteristics we wish to communicate, the traits we wish to display, and the emotions we wish to emit forward in our minds. These things become what we think about and try to exude. Pretending really is not just another part of storytelling, it is an essential part of storytelling and we cannot function as effective storytellers without it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment