By Patrick Charsky
Telling Stories: Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative by Michael Roemer is a truly unique book. I don’t think I’ve encountered anything quite like it. Telling Stories is a book full of profound meanings, excellent analysis of classic literature, and deep insight into the psychology of humans. It reveals the Postmodern condition and its implications for creating literature in the twenty-first century.
Michael Roemer is an award winning filmmaker and Professor at Yale University. I found his book through a list of texts I received as a Graduate student in Creative Writing. I read the book a few years ago, perhaps too lazily, to really give it it’s due. I returned to the book as part of a study project about Screenwriting books. I read the book twice and still think another read might be necessary for me to grasp the larger meanings in the book. Still, I think I comprehended the book well enough. Like Adam and Eve eating the apple, I tasted the sweet fruit of Roemer’s book and longed to taste more.
Telling Stories is deep into Philosophy. From Nietzche to Levi- Strauss, the book is replete with quotations and references to the great thinkers of the European tradition. Roemer says Literature and Art have become political statements rather than venerated works of religious significance. Roemer is similar to other Postmodernists when he writes that God is Dead and so is Man. His critique of Positivism is a running theme throughout the book. Through this theory man has sought to control his own destiny, to control the World. Roemer, writes that Positivism seems to be humanity’s only recourse to satisfy necessity and come to terms with mortality. Despite the advances that Human Civilization has made, we still blame God for catastrophes having no other recourse to explain why they happen. God is dead, but he is responsible for anything we can’t explain. Really deep thoughts about our current state of affairs. I was really moved by his ideas.
Further on in the text Roemer discusses the Creation myth of the Judeo-Christian Bible. I was moved by his analysis of the myth of Adam and Eve. He writes that consciousness is the original sin of man. An idea I had come across before, but never was it so elucidated as by Roemer. It opened a wellspring of knowledge about human psychology, the origin of humanity, and the meaning of religion.
Another excellent aspect of Telling Stories was Roemer’s analysis of Classic Literature. He writes about Oedipus Rex extensively. He writes about the character of Oedipus and how his fate is predetermined like so many characters in literature. Roemer says “every story is over before it begins.” Most audiences in Ancient times had seen the play of Oedipus or any other play enough times to know the story. So it became essential to create literature that people didn’t know how the hero was going to succeed. True to this day of Hollywood movies. We know that the hero will win, the only question is how will he win? What obstacles will he overcome to triumph?
Roemer goes deep into 19th Century Literature. I learned a lot about Madame Bovary, Crime and Punishment, King Lear, and Roemer’s favorite author Henry James, He calls Madame Bovary the first Modern novel. He cites Bleak House as Dickens’ most complicated, freest novel. And in one of the last chapters of the book, devoted entirely to Henry James, he writes a mini-biography of James as a Postmodernist. These novels and plays serve as the primary sources of the text. Anyone looking to get deeper into Literary theory would be wise to check out the references of Telling Stories.
Telling Stories also has deep insights into character psychology. Relying on examples and references from Freud, Jung, and the Judeo-Christian origin story, Roemer fleshes out the female psyche in famous stories like Madame Bovary. He writes about how Madame Bovary was scandalous at the time it was published for showing a woman who has affairs and runs up debts.
In the concluding chapter Roemer talks about how the couple is the most important human relationship of contemporary times. He also relates the theory that Men are taught empathy and how to relate emotionally by their Mothers. Roemer’s use of psychology shows that Literature and Art are heavily influenced by the feminine.
In another disclosure of his immense knowledge Roemer describes the Postmodern story in contrast to traditional narrative. Roemer asks; is plot dead? In my own studies I have come across a debate about which is more important; character or plot? In Telling Stories, Roemer says character is everything and plot is an “ideological construct.” I found this piece of information to be a revelation. Never before had I heard someone so unabashedly condemn plot or call it an “ideological construct.” It was an excellent piece of writing which showed how little pieces of a story add up to big meanings.
As Orwell has said “All Art is Propaganda” Roemer agrees and writes that the only subject Art has left is politics. Religion has become obsolete. Mythology has lost it’s effect. The only thing left, according to Roemer, is to make a political statement. And I agree. So many of the popular films in theaters these days are about some type of political conspiracy or power struggle. It seems Roemer is very right indeed.
I didn’t find this book on any list recommending books about screenwriting. So I asked myself, why should I read this book? Will it make me a better Screenwriter? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Since Literature has been consumed by philosophy in so many ways, the value of its information would be most relevant in a setting like a classroom. Creative Writing, Comparative Literature, Literary Theory, and Philosophy students would profit the most from reading this book. Screenwriters and Authors in general would find it very theoretical and not very practical. There are no instructions about how to write a Postmodern film or novel. I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not like philosophy. There is just too much theory to be of much worth to anyone who doesn’t like complex ideas.
This book led me to more books and really ignited a flame to comprehend more Literary Theory. And I think it will do the same for motivated students, particularly Graduate students. And that is one of the reasons I went to Graduate school; to think about the big ideas, to have time to contemplate something more than just the latest Marvel Studios Movie, Chick Lit novel reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, or the point of existence itself. Telling Stories is just that; a work full of big ideas that will open your mind to new ways of thinking. An excellent book.
