Editor’s Corner
July 1, 2009
Talking Story
By
Constance Hale
Far from the confines of Harvard Yard is a town on the North Shore of Oahu that was—when I grew up there—one part fishing village, one part sugar plantation, one part surfer’s mecca. To the south loomed the silent Mt. Kaala, whose volcanic skirt had been pleated by wind and rain and layered with lush forests. To the north was the mighty Pacific, which whispered in summer and thundered in winter. The culture was creole: a mix of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and haole, or white American.
It was there that I fell in love with narrative, which we called, in Pidgin English, “talkin’ story.” You could sit all day on our seawall and be entertained by raconteurs: Surfers talking tides, swells, and the eerie art of shooting the tube. Fishermen, rough nets resting over their bare shoulders, tracking manini, ulua, and the occasional mano, or shark. Local ladies, versed in hula, enlivening their tales with fluid gestures.
Is it a surprise that I became enraptured by narrative journalism, in which the dynamic facts of deep reporting are made to come alive by writers who see latent drama and spin glorious sentences?
Two years ago, I came to Cambridge to find the remarkable work of reporter-raconteurs and bring it to you through conferences and this online magazine. In that time, the Digest has undergone a subtle change in design and content, and journalism has undergone a sea change, with papers going through paroxysms of financial crisis, blogs sprouting like weeds and wildflowers, and the primacy of the written word challenged by audio and video.
In the course of those two years Harvard, too, has changed. This academic bastion has proved no more immune from the vicissitudes of the market than the bastions of print media. The Nieman Foundation is responding to all these changes. One result has been the suspension of our narrative conferences and the elimination of my position.
Happily, as I continue to teach narrative journalism to our fellows and experiment with the form in my own writing, the Digest will continue under the stewardship of Barbara McCarthy, who helped redesign the site and keeps it dynamic, and Andrea Pitzer, who has contributed beautifully written commentaries and scouted for stellar stories for well over a year.
Before I bow out, I’d like to thank a few others: Mark Kramer and Nell Lake, who launched the site; designer Mia Moran, who gave it its new look; and Josh Benton, who brainstormed with us and linked like crazy. Thanks also to Bob Giles for entrusting the site to me, and to Nieman Fellows and affiliates who added ideas and insight along the way: Thorne Anderson, Rosita Boland, Alix Felsing, Andy Meldrum, Gabriel Pasquini, Andrea Simakis, and Natalie Villard.
Narrative journalism feels under siege, as readers defect, newsholes shrink, seasoned editors are sidelined, and precious resources are diverted to new technology. But those who think that narrative only exists in long-form pieces forget the lesson of garrulous surfers and laconic fisherman: the power of the raconteur—especially the one girded with a rich sense of history, a trove of facts, and a love of language—is not a function of market forces. No matter the medium, no matter if the medium is just the air we breathe, narrative matters.
The Digest will continue to be a nexus for a community of storytellers of all stripes. And I will continue to be a part of this community, exploring the wonders of the word, expanding definitions of literary storytelling, and bringing raconteurs together. Please visit me on my Sin and Syntax site and stay in touch by email. And … keep the faith.