Why do people need stories?

I met Yasmin Ahmad and (veteran film maker) Dato L Krishnan during a function last week when the question arose, Why do we need stories? Why do people need stories?

Just look around us. We are saturated with stories. The fact that Malaysians don't read much does not count for anything. We are surrounded by stories. Everywhere. They are all around us. In books, in newspapers, in magazines, in movies, on television, and on radio. We write stories, we sing stories in songs, we tell them in drama, we draw them in paintings, we dance it … Thousands of stories are told every day, for thousands and thousands of listeners. We can live with very little to eat, but we cannot live without stories.

Maybe it is because stories are about people's lives, and that's why they like to listen to it … we want to find out more about our lives, Yasmin said.

You think so? interjected Dato' Krishnan, How do you explain a five year old or even a two year old who likes to listen to stories sitting on his grandfather's lap or before he goes to sleep, and what does he know about life?

I guess we will never answer the 'why' question satisfactorily. But the fact remains, stories are a major part of our lives and throughout the ages storytellers have held the most important positions in society. Leading American writer Paul Auster, in a recent acceptance speech for the Prince of Asturias Prize for Letters, (Spain's premier literary award) argues that fiction is 'magnificently useless'. Magnificent, yes we can see that … but useless? Surely not. It is, perhaps, useless in a practical sense: we cannot eat it, it will not fix a leaking roof, or change the light bulb … but can any human live without it?

Paul Auster continues: This need to make, to create, to invent is, no doubt, a fundamental human impulse. But to what end? What purpose does art, in particular the art of fiction; serve in what we call the real world? … Some like to think that a keen appreciation of art can actually make us better people - more just, more moral, more sensitive, more understanding … art is useless, at least when compared, say, to the work of a plumber, or a doctor, or a railroad engineer. But is uselessness a bad thing? Does a lack of practical purpose mean that books and paintings and string quartets are simply a waste of our time?

Anyone who has seen the excitement in the eyes of the two year old sitting on a relative's lap, listening to a yarn unfold knows the answer to that.

We are human and we cannot live without stories. We are the only animals with this yearning. Yasmin then said, Do storytellers really create the stories, or do the stories already exist and the storyteller is merely the vehicle? It is a chicken and egg question, the answer to which is not important.

What is important is that stories and art are our cultural genes, or memes - to use a word coined by Richard Dawkins in1979 - that make up our social DNA. And almost every aspect of a society can be found in these memes. In the Malaysian context, the legend of Hang Tuah's epic battle with Hang Jebat is probably the most prominent meme. That which splits Malaysians right down the middle even today - do you protest against an unjust ruler or rule, or uphold it because it comes from the ruler and it is the rule?

Another interesting Malaysian meme, for me, is from the Malay Annals - the story Singapura dilanda todak or the Swordfish attack on Singapore. This is quite similar to the Dutch story of a little boy who stuck his finger into a dike to stop a leak and as a result saved the country from flooding. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe he became a hero in Holland after that. In the Malaysian version of this meme, this happened long before the time of the founding of Melaka in the 15th century, swordfish attack Singapore. People are attacked by this fish, pierced through their chest and stomach, and even decapitated. Many die. The Ruler orders his men to form a continuous row along the shoreline to kill the fish as they approach. But when the swordfish come many men needlessly perished when the fish attack their shins. Then one little boy watching this disaster said, Why are we making a barricade with our legs. Would it not be better if we used banana stems instead? When the Paduka Sri Maharaja (today he would be called the prime minister) heard this he said, Of course, the boy is right. And so they built a barricade of banana stems and the swordfish were defeated due to the ingenuity of a little boy.

In most versions, the story ends here. But in the actual account in the Sejarah Melayu, the Paduka Sri Maharaja goes back to the Ruler and tells him what happens. He also adds, The boy is very clever and when he grows up he will be a very clever man. Would it not be better to get rid of him now. The Ruler agrees and orders the boy to be put to death.

We still haven't stopped shooting messengers over seven hundred years after that event. Could that be the reason why we worship mediocrity like Akademi Fantasia so much? The reason for our major anti-intellectualism, perhaps?