Storytelling - Susan Sontag

 In the article, Susan Sontag states that a great writer of fiction not only creates, but also responds to a world: "They evoke humanity in narratives with which we can identify, even though the lives may be remote from our own." Sontag understands that telling every story in humanity is impossible so we must choose which central story we want to convey. Although we must exclude parts of the story to convey this central theme, a good storyteller makes sure the aspects excluded are still reflected. Sontag also states other factors of a good story: a purposeful beginning, goal, and end. A story comes to a finite, definitive ending, satisfies the reader by giving him closure: "A novel is a world with borders. For there to be completeness, unity, coherence, there must be borders." Then, at the end of the article, she reiterates the importance of literature and storytelling for the expansion of the human mind and perspectives. "Literature involves. It is the re-creation of human solidarity. Television (with its illusion of immediacy) distances — immures us in our own indifference."