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Storyteller vs Writer...

Eva said:
The original post seems to be looking for a dismissive word to contrast with real writers who have a literary style: Hemingway was a writer; King is just a storyteller. That's quite a put-down of the honorable art of storytelling, and also doesn't recognize the importance of storytelling in the highest literary writing.

But I think there are writers who have more of a storytelling personality that they let into the atmosphere in their writing. Some authors have more of a presence in their work--I just get more of a sense that I'm listening to someone telling the story, rather than someone crafting words on paper. There's a difference in the sound of the reading.

Mark Twain seems very present in his writing. Remains of the Day is a great work, but it feels more like the author was stepping back and making things happen from the shadows, which I think works well for the somewhat removed life the narrator is recalling.
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King, even if he tried, could never stand in the shadow of Hemingway. That's my view at least. :whistling:
 
It seems to me a writer would have to be a good storyteller to be successful, and a storyteller would have to be a good writer in order to put across his story successfully.

So hand in hand is the most logical to me.
 
pontalba said:
It seems to me a writer would have to be a good storyteller to be successful, and a storyteller would have to be a good writer in order to put across his story successfully.

So hand in hand is the most logical to me.
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Now there's an interesting thought.

I wonder what Slaughterhouse Five would have been like if Louis L'Amour wrote it or The Hunt for Red October if Vonnegut wrote it. Those would certainly be interesting to read.
 
sparkchaser said:
Now there's an interesting thought.

I wonder what Slaughterhouse Five would have been like if Louis L'Amour wrote it or The Hunt for Red October if Vonnegut wrote it. Those would certainly be interesting to read.
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I have to think The Hunt for Red October could only have been improved by Vonnegut.

Now L'Amour is a great storyteller and he writes in a manner that suits his type of stories. I've read his Sackett series, I think its about 18 books in all tracing a family from the Fens to the American West. He does a dynamite job of it too. Naturally some are better than others, but the series as a whole is a wonderful panorama of a family's and a countries story.
 
pontalba said:
I have to think The Hunt for Red October could only have been improved by Vonnegut.
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LIES!

Although, it would be interesting to see The Hunt for Red October turned into an evils of Cold War tale dripping with biting cynicism.
 
Literary theory says that postmodernist literature brought back the story, that nowadays a good writer is the one who manages to write good quality literature, with no compromise to the value of the writing, and appeal to the general public at the same time, by writing a captivating story, unlike modernists like Virginia Woolf or Joyce.
I think that today, the good writer is the one who is appreciated by both academics and the general public, finding this balance proves that he/she is really good.
 
well i think that the difference is, that a storyteller is more focused on fiction and non-fiction while the writer could be someone with more than one subject to write about and he/she is kind of focused on general writing that could be talking about nature, politics, helpful tips and many others.:innocent:
 
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