I never had a literature analysis class in high school and only half-appreciated my one college literature class. It’s not that I don’t like literature. Obviously, I do. I read voraciously. I read genre and literary and even classic works. While in high school, I made a list of literature that I felt I had to read in order to consider myself “well-read”. I don’t have that list anymore, but I remember it had an eclectic mix of stories. Gone with the Wind (which I’d already read), “The Iliad” and the “The Odyssey” (which I hadn’t), “Scarlet Letter,” “Jane Eyre,” “Little Women,” “Last of the Mohicans” (I never read the book, but loved the movie). In that college class I was exposed to a few I hadn’t known, like “Peer Gynt” and Chaucer’s tales. I read and enjoyed most of what I put on that list. And I’m still enjoying the discovery of old and new stories.

         But I’ve never thought I analyzed them very well.

         Why in the world then would I have a website dedicated to reviewing and commenting on books? I’ve asked myself the same question. LOL In my illogical mind, what I do here is vastly different than analyzing literature. (Yes, it is.) I read and comment on stories. First I experience the story. Then I evaluate the experience. But rarely do I look at how it is plotted or what techniques are used to tell the story or how the characters personify different themes or messages. I just experience the story.

         Now sometimes, when I have my “writer’s hat” on, I can pick apart some of those techniques. But this isn’t the place for me to be spouting off about point of view and foreshadowing and keeping the theme consistent and building tension. You’d be bored. I know because my family’s eyes start glazing over when I put on my “writer voice”. (If you are a writer and want to read my thoughts on writing I co-blog at Routines For Writers.)

         I just don’t analyze the mechanics of literature very well. I can’t count the times someone has remarked about how badly written something is and I will have not seen it. (Sometimes I can’t even see it after it is pointed out.) I either enjoy a story or I don’t. But I am also constantly trying to improve myself. To that end, I went looking and found this site that teaches how to analyze literature. And I discovered that, according to this professor, analyzing literature is basically just picking apart the story to see how it’s put together. And many of the suggestions on that list are things I already notice when reading.

         So maybe it isn’t that I don’t analyze well. Maybe it’s that I just see the whole quicker and clearer than the pieces that make up that whole. And that sometimes, in the hands of a good storyteller, the whole becomes more than the pieces. Which is why I can see a good story and others might see flawed pieces of that story.

         I think I’ll keep doing it my way . . . Seeking good storytellers telling good stories.

         Occasionally I wonder if I should spend as much time as I do reading and writing fiction. I look at the culture around me and I see way too much emphasis on entertainment. There are much more important things in life. There are meals to be cooked, clothes to be laundered, rooms to be cleaned. There are the poor and the sick to help, the tragedies of life to better. There are errands to run and countless chores to be done. When I think on all the routine and extraordinary issues of life, , entertainment seems frivolous and unnecessary.

         So why do I embrace it?

         On one level, I can’t not tell stories. Even when I try, when I become mired in life’s day-to-day responsibilities or caught up in important, life-changing events, the stories still cavort in my mind. Those I’ve read, those I’ve written and those begging to be heard. And that is as it should be.

         I am a storyteller. A storyteller does not just entertain. A storyteller gives hope and inspiration. A storyteller calls us from the mire of the everyday to experience the richness of the possible day. The stories that come from the storyteller’s pen or voice tell of adventure and romance and the struggle to achieve something lasting. The best stories show the wisdom and success of living rightly along with the folly of unwise choices. When done well, in the midst of an enthralling story, truth is discovered. Even without the lessons, stories ennoble us, call us to desire and strive for more than the humdrum routine of day-to-day life. Reading, watching, and especially creating stories pulls us out of the routines of life and gifts us with a fresh look at the world, at our circumstances, at out choices.

         Hearing and telling stories. That’s what I want to do.

         And that is a good thing.