>Story telling has been a major way both of hearing about agenda formation,
>>and of understanding what people are doing in their agenda formation. We
>>remember our agendas through stories, we tell ourselves and others stories to
>
>express those agendas and to influence others (and ourselves), we write
>ourselves into the plots of our stories in particular ways.
Don Bannister once said that the best book on personality published in the
whole world in the1970s was Luke Rinehart's "The Diceman".
In the same spirit, I must respond to David's mailing by suggesting that
the seminal work in this field is Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad"; and,
in a less explicit but maybe more entertaining presentation of the same
theme, "Wyrd Sisters".
The theme being that not only are stories important in shaping agendas, but
that certain stories exist independently of current human actors, and that
they strive for expression independently of the people who are telling
them: they create human agendas!
One could go all Jungian in order to legitimise these assertions, and talk
about archetypes, how they exist and gain expression in any culture whether
social or organisational, and so on.
But save yourselves all that: just read Pratchett and have fun!
Kindest regards,
Devi Jankowicz
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