1. Story telling benefits on human beings
By prof. Ferrario Paolo
When I was asked to write a piece about storytelling, I must confess I was taken quite aback. “Let it grow in
your mind” I said to myself, “Let your mind roam, something will come out of it!”.
Story reading, story writing, story listening, story telling … stories… .
Just some weeks ago, at home for dinner, on the radio we heard references to a popular tale, I can’t
remember which now, and my son started retelling it. I was surprised and puzzled: “Do you know it?” I asked
him. “Of course” he replied “Can’t you remember it’s one of the tales Mum and you used to read us in the
evening when we went to bed before we fell asleep!”. “You fool!” I said to myself… “Long term memory
activated…Mission accomplished!” Memory stays… About fifteen years had elapsed. So …… story
telling does activate long term memory while arousing emotions … awe, fear, joy, cheer, while triggering sighs
or smiles. More than that, stories have such a capacity to strike children that not only the gist, the contents but
also the emotions, remain for ever rooted in their ancestral memories, in their inner selves, in the most intimate
recesses of their minds.
And certainly listening to and reading stories enhance intelligence and learning. They help build the “Linear
Thought Capacity” that is our mind’s ability to sequence events, identify causes and effects, process details,
link them to the core topics, and connect them to one another. All of this at an abstract level, that is: with no
need to refer to visual images whatsoever, just relying on and producing abstractions. That means building
intelligence, doesn’t it?
“Intelligence only?” You’ll be wondering… “Intelligence only?”
“Well, what about imagination?” “Right you are!...What about imagination?” All these processes in our mind
certainly build up our imaginative faculties. Of course: abstractions imply and need imagination! Who would
deny it?
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour”
(W. Blake, Auguries of Innocence)
“And I know that This World is a World of Imagination and Vision. I see Every thing I paint in This World. But
Every body does not see alike…”
(The Letters of William Blake. “To Dr John Trusler”, August 23, 1799)
“I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination – What the
Imagination seizes as beauty must be truth - …”
(J. Keats, “Letter to Benjamin Bailey”, November 22, 1817)
So to the eyes of Romantic poets, Imagination allows us to reach and understand truth, to comprehend reality.
According to Keats, beauty can be discovered and achieved thanks to imagination, and beauty may have
something to do with harmony. Harmony within ourselves, with our fellow beings, within our societies…To
Blake, on the other hand, imagination is also freedom, freedom to develop and evolve without restrictions,
without predefined patterns or schemes… but that would take us too far… let’s not start dreaming!
Is imagination still relevant to us, modern men and women of the global village?
“What’s the point of it? What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” Haroun asks his father Rashid (the
story teller) in Chapter 1 of Salman Rushdie’s “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”.

2. Later, however, engaged in his fight against Khattam Shud, the dictator in the country of Chup - the land of
cold and darkness - who is trying to pollute the Source of Stories in the Sea of Stories, Haroun himself asks
his enemy “Why do you hate stories so much?” … “Stories are fun!” and Khattam Shud answers: “The world
however is not for fun” … “The world is for controlling!” .
Eventually Haroun, just a kid, will manage to prevent Khattam Shud from polluting the Source of Stories also
thanks to his imagination and generosity. Khattam Shud himself will be overthrown and peace and harmony
re-established on the moon Kahani.
When Rashid, the storyteller, tells of his and his son’s adventures in fighting Khattam Shud at a political rally
called to support, in the forthcoming elections, the local bosses, themselves tyrants in their own country - the
Valley of K. - the local people rise up and the tyrants have no other choice but to flee.
My pupils’ comment in class was: “Imagination may change the world!”. That’s it: “Storytelling, building up
intelligence, and Imagination indeed may change the world!”
25th August 2011