Shadow Spinner

You’ve heard about the famous leg­endary sto­ry­teller, Shahrazad? You know, the one who had to tell a new sto­ry every night for 1001 nights — oth­er­wise her hus­band would kill her? Even if you haven’t heard of Shahrazad, you’ve prob­a­bly heard some of the sto­ries she told: “Aladdin,” “Sind­bad the Sailor,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and many, many more.

I got to think­ing about the leg­end of this remark­able woman, Shahrazad. She actu­al­ly vol­un­teered for the job! Nobody was forc­ing her to mar­ry that awful sul­tan. He had a grudge against women, so he would mar­ry one in the day­time, spend the night with her, and have her killed the fol­low­ing morn­ing. But Shahrazad had an idea to stop the killings. She would mar­ry him, then get him inter­est­ed in a sto­ry she was telling. It would be a long sto­ry, too long for just one night. So if he want­ed to hear how the sto­ry came out … he would have to let her live anoth­er day. Her plan worked. But the prob­lem was, she had to keep it up for a long time. Real­ly long. Almost-three-years long.

I loved the idea of a hero who saves a bunch of people’s lives—not by going out and fight­ing and killing and stuff like that—but sim­ply by telling sto­ries. But I knew that if I had to think up a new sto­ry every night for 1001 nights, I’d get storyteller’s block for sure! I began to won­der what might hap­pen if Shahrazad did get storyteller’s block. Might some­one help her find new sto­ries? Maybe a younger girl, some­one who admired Shahrazad for her courage and her skill? And then what if the events of the sto­ry required this girl to devel­op her own courage and sto­ry­telling skills?

The oth­er thing I loved about work­ing with the leg­end of Shahrazad was that it gave me a chance to reflect upon the impor­tance of sto­ry­telling. Because I tell sto­ries too — only in a dif­fer­ent way. I make them up and write them down. Some­times I get the impres­sion that my fam­i­ly mem­bers (who most­ly work in the sci­ences) think that devot­ing one’s life work to sto­ries is, well, maybe a lit­tle bit loopy. So the “Lessons for Life and Sto­ry­telling” in the book are med­i­ta­tions, kind of. Reflec­tions on why it’s impor­tant to read sto­ries, tell sto­ries, write sto­ries. Sto­ries can save your life!