Hundreds of hardened trial lawyers, stacked into a hotel conference room for one more round of mandatory continuing education, listened in child-like rapture and utter silence as real stories were told. Between time-spaces where I was vigorously researching jury deliberation literature, I began to harvest interdisciplinary research on the effects of oral storytelling. Tale comes from the Anglo-Saxon talu, which means speech, and storytelling has been proposed as the engine of human communication systems in all cultures. The problem is that oral storytelling has been vanishing in a technologically video-driven world. Oral storytelling allows the audience to engage in a leap of empathy, binding them into wider relationships that provide bridges across cultures and times.
Communities use stories as carriers of cultural values, norms, and expectations.
Storytelling is also a communication event between teller and audience, with trance-like results. When I am telling a tale I have told many times before, I am always aware that I negotiate that tale through communication with the new audience. Tellings vary as myriad nonverbal messages from the listeners encourage witchier witches, darker nights, or more poignant partings. I told stories before lunch. One day a sophisticated young lawyer offered an observation that clearly surprised her.