On Stories...

I've been thinking a great deal recently about the nature of stories and why we (humans) tell them. Before medical school, I was an English major with a focus on journalism, and while I was writing non-fiction, we still referred to our articles as "stories." As a physician, the history is the most basic foundation we learn in medical school. When I have a patient come in, the second thing I ask them (after "How are you?"), is "What brings you to the ER today?" They then tell me a story, whether it's "I tripped and my ankle hurts" or "This feels like my old heart attack." I use that story as a basis to decide what to do and what tests to order.

Sometimes, a patient is demented or unable to tell me what their story is. In those cases, I ask the medics or friends or family. I usually need some sort of story to figure out what is going on.*

*That being said, my favorite patient is the undifferentiated "found-down" patient with no history available. I'm an ER doc. I love adrenaline.

Everything is a story.

Well, maybe not a story, but a construct for sure. Yuval Noah Harari describes this beautifully in his book Sapiens. Religion is a construct--one so powerful people kill for it. Freedom of Speech is a construct. Economics. Political Parties. The Second Amendment. Even "human rights." Humans latch on to these constructs, often against their direct interests.

What is a story?

I struggle to define this, but I know it when I see it.

Aristotle defined a rhetorical triangle as the intersection between author, text, and audience.

I disagree with this a bit. The author and the reader can be the same person. After all, our identity is a story we tell ourselves.

What?!

It is! I didn't make this up.

Check out the concept of Narrative Identity. It's fascinating.

Who tells stories?

Everyone! Maybe not to other people, but to themselves for sure.

My identity is something like: doctor, backpacker, USAF veteran, liberal, father, agnostic, husband, ADHD-er, and (recently rediscovered) writer. Based off that, you probably have an idea of the kind of person I am.

Why tell stories?

Why not?! They entertain. (Home Alone)

They motivate. (Rocky)

They inform. (All the Presidents Men)

They inspire meaning. (The Passion of the Christ)

They answer the big questions. (Norse Creation Myth)

They make us feel. (Dungeon Crawler Carl)*

*One of my favorite parts in my writing process was when one of my alpha readers ragequit my book to then go on a rant about Canada. Of note, "Canada" doesn't exist in Animalia. Still though, I was pretty pleased to inspire some emotions with my art!

Why tell a story about tyranny using fiction?

Sometimes, fiction is more believable and relatable than truth itself. Fiction can be neater than reality. Simpler even. Within the first few chapters of a book, the author has made a promise to the reader. Promises of tone, promises of genre, promises of expectations.

We have been telling stories about tyranny forever. Look at Aesop's Wolf and the Lamb. Look at Moses vs. Pharoah in the Bible. Look at the epic of Gilgamesh.

Animalia joins that tradition.

Why are YOU telling this story?

Everyday in early 2025, the news felt like another body blow to the values I hold, to the oath I swore to the Constitution of the United States when I joined the Air Force. I knew I had to do something, but I wasn't sure what.

And one day I woke up, with a fully formed plot of Animalia in my head. It was a compulsion. Literraly writing for 10 hours or more a day. My hygiene definitely suffered. I felt like the ancient Greeks must have felt when the muse struck.

And I will say, writing Animalia was incredibly therapeutic. Check it out. I hope you enjoy my silly little story about animals with no deeper meaning whatsover.

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