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Can Anglos be Sexy in an Oral Tradition?
Feb. 5th, 2008 05:13 pmI was using my Facebook status to bemoan the fact that musicians seem to automatically get more sex appeal than storytellers.
The perception is that it takes more skill to learn to play the instrument; any fool can just get up and tell a story.
And that can be true until you hear a storyteller tell a story BADLY, or have to sit through a BAD story. This is when you realize that it takes a different set of skills to be able to tell a story in such a way that it engages your audience. And yet, none of this is particularly sexy.
And that led to the topic of erotic storytelling. The French seem to have this genre covered quite nicely. When I attended more French storytelling events, I would often see Renee Robitaille tell her Contes Coquins. The stories were charming, erotic, and yet not crass. And as much as I enjoyed listening to her tell them, I kept thinking how these stories would not translate well to English or English audiences.
But why is that? Is it because English audiences are too prudish when it comes to the artform? Or is it because the spoken language is too clunky when it comes to erotic language? When the French tell an erotic tale, it can sound lyrical (when crafted properly). But even when crafted with care, it's difficult for me to imagine the story as lyrical and poetic.
Maybe that's part of the problem: exposure. I am unaccustomed to hearing it, so an erotic storytelling session in English would be difficult to imagine. I've been to poetry readings that attempted to cover the erotic, but like too many poets, the gloominess of their outlook on life diminishes the eroticity of the attempt (there are exceptions to this, to be sure).
And then there's the gender problem. Having a women tell an erotic story can be beautiful and sensual, but having a man tell an erotic story comes off as crass, borderline pornographic. If you look up those two terms (erotic vs. pornographic), although similar, the latter has a distinctive negative connotation.
Sexuality is always such a touchy subject, literally.
The perception is that it takes more skill to learn to play the instrument; any fool can just get up and tell a story.
And that can be true until you hear a storyteller tell a story BADLY, or have to sit through a BAD story. This is when you realize that it takes a different set of skills to be able to tell a story in such a way that it engages your audience. And yet, none of this is particularly sexy.
And that led to the topic of erotic storytelling. The French seem to have this genre covered quite nicely. When I attended more French storytelling events, I would often see Renee Robitaille tell her Contes Coquins. The stories were charming, erotic, and yet not crass. And as much as I enjoyed listening to her tell them, I kept thinking how these stories would not translate well to English or English audiences.
But why is that? Is it because English audiences are too prudish when it comes to the artform? Or is it because the spoken language is too clunky when it comes to erotic language? When the French tell an erotic tale, it can sound lyrical (when crafted properly). But even when crafted with care, it's difficult for me to imagine the story as lyrical and poetic.
Maybe that's part of the problem: exposure. I am unaccustomed to hearing it, so an erotic storytelling session in English would be difficult to imagine. I've been to poetry readings that attempted to cover the erotic, but like too many poets, the gloominess of their outlook on life diminishes the eroticity of the attempt (there are exceptions to this, to be sure).
And then there's the gender problem. Having a women tell an erotic story can be beautiful and sensual, but having a man tell an erotic story comes off as crass, borderline pornographic. If you look up those two terms (erotic vs. pornographic), although similar, the latter has a distinctive negative connotation.
Sexuality is always such a touchy subject, literally.
