This is mainly just a note from a conversation in a British Lit class. Not sure what it’s for but I didn’t want to forget it. What I didn’t quite get across when talking about *Beowulf:* the story may have cultural relevance, but storytelling is literal, visceral, immediate — [[storytelling is - is not|storytelling is not]] (just) about “lessons;” *storytelling is about having a good time.[^1]* (And if the storyteller has become an *author* who is too f✨ing precious and self-absorbed to let the story take center stage, he’s actually going to be telling a story about *himself,* and the audience can tell, and that’s *probably* not what they were looking for when they agreed to listen to the story…?) If you are a storyteller, you need to: - know the stories - pass them on - understand — *inhabit* them — *be inhabited by* them, in a way that lets you pass them on, amid your present reality If you are (or want to be) a ⎽⎽⎽⎽⎽, what do you need? - What kind of stories will sustain you, what stories do you crave? - What does “literature” contain that you need? - What stories are inhabiting you already? - What do you *need* to do, make, or understand, and what does storytelling have to do with it? [^1]: What else is it for? And how or why might “having a good time” be more “serious” than it sounds?