All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 05.Drawing From Storytelling Traditions

SALMAN RUSHDIE:
Morning now dawned,

and Sheherazade
broke off from what

she had been allowed to say.

"What a good, pleasant,
delightful, and sweet story

this is," exclaimed Dunyazad,
at which Sheherazade told her,

"How can this compare
with what I shall tell you

this coming night?

If I am still alive and
the king spares me."

"My God," the king
said to himself.

"I am not going to
kill her until I

hear the rest of this
remarkable story."

And so, they spent the rest of
the time embracing one another

until the sun had fully risen.

until the sun had fully risen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You know, you may
well find that you

want to look at very
old stories in order

to learn how to tell a new one.

And in all cultures,
we have a kind

of storehouse of those stories,
you know, that we call myths,

of storehouse of those stories,
you know, that we call myths,

you know.

In some cases, these
myths are the leftovers

of religions that people
no longer believe in.

You know, once upon a
time, the Greek myths

were the texts of
the Greek religion.

And these gods were real gods
as far as people were concerned.

What's left now are these
wonderful narratives.

And these narratives have
endured for thousands of years.

And they haven't
endured by accident.

And they haven't
endured by accident.

You know, they endure because
they contain so much truth,

you know, and often, they're
just kind of amazing stories.

One of the characteristics of
all these ancient stories is

that they're--

even if they're
stories about gods--

is that they're truthful
about human beings

because, frankly, the
gods could be greedy.

They can be vengeful.

They can be sexually aggressive.

They can be sexually aggressive.

They can have many human faults.

And then they can have virtues.

You know, they can have a
kind of nobility or kindness

or sweetness, you know.

And so, through
these stories, we

see ourselves in a kind of
enlarged form, you know.

And it can help us think about
ourselves at our own scale.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I was writing a
rock and roll novel.

I was writing a novel, "The
Ground Beneath Her Feet," which

is about rock and roll singers.

And the thing that showed me
how to write it, in a way,

was an ancient story
from the Greek myths,

the story of Orpheus
and Eurydice,

and the story about him
falling in love with somebody

who dies because of a snakebite
and following her beyond death,

following her into
the underworld,

to try and retrieve her
from the arms of death.

to try and retrieve her
from the arms of death.

My story is also about--
it's called "The Ground

Beneath Her Feet" because
the woman in question

is killed by an earthquake.

Literally, the ground
opens beneath her feet.

And it's about the man who
is so obsessed with her

that he can't stop loving
her, even though she's dead.

And it seemed to me that there,
in that-- the story of Orpheus

and Eurydice, you can tell it
in 100 words or less, you know.

And that's one of
the things that's

interesting about
the great myths,

interesting about
the great myths,

is that they're
very, very condensed.

They're like little compressed
balls of energy, you know.

And you start unpacking them,
and they can explode and give

you all sorts of possibilities.

So in that case, here, you've
got, you know, a triangle.

And at one point of the
triangle, there's love.

At another point, there's
art, music, poetry,

and at the third point of
the triangle, there's death.

And so, the question
you can ask yourself

is, can love, through the
power of art, overcome death?

is, can love, through the
power of art, overcome death?

And so, in this
little story, there

are these questions
which writers have spent

hundreds of years answering.

And, you know, we can all
answer them in our own way.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

One of the collections
of old stories

that has been most
important to me

that has been most
important to me

is the book which,
in Arabic, it's

called "Alf laylah
wa laylah," which

is 1,000 nights and one
night, colloquially known

as "The Arabian Nights."

And these stories have had
a very interesting journey.

Most of them originated
at some point in India,

maybe the 10th or 11th
century, and were written down

at some point in
Persian, in Farsi,

which was, at that
point, the cult language.

And so, they moved west,
first into Persia, and then

And so, they moved west,
first into Persia, and then

into the Arabic speaking world.

From the Arabic, it
made its way initially

into French and then
into English and then

into everything.

So these stories have
traveled the world.

And they are stories of--

some of them are love stories.

Some of them are
stories of interactions

with supernatural beings.

They're all very
exciting stories.

And what they're not
is children's stories.

I know because of Walt
Disney, we think of,

I know because of Walt
Disney, we think of,

you know, Aladdin and so on
as being children's stories.

You know, there's a
lot of sex and violence

in "The Arabian
Nights," which you

wouldn't want your kids to be
reading too young, let's say.

But to me, they are a great
storehouse of storytelling,

and also, they tell you
how to tell stories.

Because at the heart
of it, and the reason

why I really love it,
is the frame story

why I really love it,
is the frame story

of Sheherazade, maybe the
greatest, most heroic woman

in literature.

You know, frame stories about
this wicked king who allegedly

discovers his wife
being unfaithful

and kills her and then decides
that he will marry, deflower,

and then execute a virgin
every night of his life.

and then execute a virgin
every night of his life.

And he has been doing
this for some years

until Sheherazade,
who is actually

the daughter of
his prime minister,

of his vizier, volunteers,
thinking that she has a plan

to prevent this from going on.

And her plan is to
tell him stories.

So on the wedding
night, with her sister

sitting at the foot of
the bed, after they'd

made love, the king
and Sheherazade,

the sister says,
tell me a story.

And Sheherazade starts.

And Sheherazade starts.

And she has the brains
never to finish the story

at the end of the night
so that the king always

wants to hear the end of
the story the next day.

And the king doesn't
want to execute her

because he needs to know
what the story will be.

So here, you have a
story about a woman using

the power of story, the
power of literature, in a way

to tame a brute.

And kind of, the
beauty of the story

is that by the end of the
1,000 Nights and One Night,

is that by the end of the
1,000 Nights and One Night,

it's clear that he no longer
wants to kill anybody.

It's something that
has civilized him.

And that idea that somebody,
this woman, Sheherazade,

would lay her life on the
line, believing that literature

will save her, you
know, it's just

such an extraordinary
image, you know,

that I think has inspired
writers forever after that,

that I think has inspired
writers forever after that,

you know, including me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Well, I mean,
actually, Sheherazade

is quite like a commercial
storyteller in that she

is very interested in
holding the attention

of the reader, You.

Know, so in this case, holding
the attention of the king.

So she uses a
number of techniques

which are designed to do that.

which are designed to do that.

One is the cliffhanger
ending, you know,

so that you need to know
whether the person hanging off

the edge of the cliff
survives or not.

You know, and the other is a
technique which "The Arabian

Nights" likes a lot, which
is the kind of Russian doll

version of stories, the kind
of the story inside the story

inside the story.

You know, so she's
telling a story.

And in the story, one of the
characters will say, you know,

that reminds me of a story.

that reminds me of a story.

And at a certain
point, it all unwinds,

and it's kind of a-- she
does it so skillfully

that it's very enjoyable.

That's a little bit
of a tricky technique

to use because it can become
very confusing to the reader

if you do it badly, you know.

But if you do it well, it
adds to the playfulness

and enjoyment of the text.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I come from a part of the world
in which the oral narration,

I come from a part of the world
in which the oral narration,

the act of the
storyteller standing up

in front of an audience
and telling a story,

is still very alive.

Some of this has
to do with the fact

that there are parts of the
country in which literacy

levels are low--

India, I'm talking about.

But some of it just
had to do with the fact

that people still enjoy it.

There are immensely popular
oral storytellers who

could gather really very
substantial audiences to listen

to them tell a story.

And the thing that's
interesting about it to me

And the thing that's
interesting about it to me

is that the oral storyteller,
everything he or she does,

is designed to keep the audience
sitting there and interested.

The moment the audience
loses interest,

it will actually get
up and walk away.

So if the oral storyteller
is going to be successful,

he needs to devise strategies
which will keep them sitting

there, you know, and engaged.

there, you know, and engaged.

And what interested me was that
the strategies that they have

devised are kind of the
opposite of what you're told

in creative writing school.

The famous advice in
"Alice in Wonderland"

that the King of Hearts gives
to the White Rabbit in court

when the White Rabbit
is flustered about how

to give evidence, and
the King of Hearts

says, "Begin at the beginning.

Go on until you've reached
the end and then stop,"

oral storytellers
don't do it like that.

oral storytellers
don't do it like that.

They usually have three or
four storylines going on,

and they'll intertwine
these stories.

And in between the
intertwining, there

will be moments where
they sing a little song

or do a little dance.

So there's a whole
range of things going on

at the same time, kind of,
in a way, like juggling.

And you would think
and many people

would say that that's a
confusing way to tell a story,

you know.

But actually, what
you find, when

you see these performances, is
that that is what keeps people

you see these performances, is
that that is what keeps people

sitting there and interested,
that the complexity,

the multiple storyline, is more
entertaining, more engaging,

than the simple beginning
to end narrative.

I think nowadays,
you know, now we

have all these great
television series.

And we've all become trained to
listen to long stories, which

have many, many storylines.

You know, a thing
like "Game of Thrones"

You know, a thing
like "Game of Thrones"

had, I mean, I don't know how
many storylines, you know,

but a lot.

So in a way, we are now,
in a way, relearning

that lesson, that that
way of telling a story

can be more engaging, more
entertaining than a simple

beginning, middle, end.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In the oral story, I
think that's really

a lot of the pleasure, is just
watching the performer perform,

do his trick, you know.

And you enjoy the trick
because it's so well done.

And you enjoy the trick
because it's so well done.

Of course, what it allows
you to do in a written form

is to make connections
between things.

So if you have two or
three different storylines

and you juxtapose by jumping
from one moment in one

storyline to another moment
in another storyline,

then, you know, if
you do it right,

you're saying something about
how those moments connect

to each other.

In the written
form, you have to be

much more cautious about jumping
too often between story lines

much more cautious about jumping
too often between story lines

because it can stop
being a pleasure

and it can become a
distraction, you know,

that the reader can feel
that they were engaged fully

with one story that
you were telling them.

And if you just suddenly
abruptly leave that

and go somewhere
else, they can say,

what are you doing that for?

I don't want to be over there.

I want to be over here.

And so, I think the way to
think about it in a written form

is that if you're going to
have different stories weaving

is that if you're going to
have different stories weaving

in and out of each other, is
that each moment of each story

should feel a bit like a
complete story in itself.

When I wrote "The
Enchantress of Florence,"

It intertwines a
storyline taking

place in India in the court
of the Mughal emperor Akbar

with the storyline
taking place in Florence

at the time of the
High Renaissance,

at the time of the
High Renaissance,

the time of Machiavelli
and the Medicis.

And I worried that as the novel
hopped between place and time,

that it would be
irritating to the reader,

that they would think, hang
on, I was over here just now.

Why am I over there
now, you know?

And so, when I finished
the draft of the novel,

I showed it to a few friends.

And I specifically
said to them, tell me

if you get irritated by
that jumping back and forth.

if you get irritated by
that jumping back and forth.

And if so, tell me exactly
where you get irritated.

And so, they did.

And the thing that I
learned from those readings

was that I was
doing it too much.

I was jumping back and
forth much too much.

And it was annoying.

And so, I revised the book so
that each section was longer.

And it felt as if
each section had

a kind of story arc, a little
mini story arc of its own.

So there was a kind
of satisfaction,

like the satisfaction of reading
a short story in each section.

like the satisfaction of reading
a short story in each section.

And that meant that
the reader was not so

offended by the sudden switch.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

One of the ways in
which you can, in a way,

mimic in print the art
of the oral storyteller

is by having a
storyteller in your story,

you know, in other words,
first person narration.

you know, in other words,
first person narration.

If I am telling you
the story then I

can be playful in the way
in which in real life,

if I was telling you
a story, I would be.

You don't necessarily
tell them the story

in narrative sequence.

You can say, oh, but you
know, this reminds me of.

That can take you
off on a tangent

to have a kind of
parenthesis story,

to have a kind of
parenthesis story,

and then you can come
back to the story.

And that's something
we all understand

as the way in which we talk
to each other, you know.

So if you have a
first person narrator,

then he can do
something like that,

or she can do something
like that, in print.

You can hop between
moments of time and place.

And, you know, the
future of a character,

the past of a character
can be used to illuminate

the present of the character.

In the third person, it's
harder because people

In the third person, it's
harder because people

have a sense of the
third person novel

as being a kind of different
sort of transaction.

And I would suggest certainly
when you're setting out,

if you want to be
like a storyteller,

then try using a
first person narrator.

Try using somebody who
literally is telling

the story in your story.