Jorge Méndez Blake attempted to illustrate the power of a single story with his 2002 art project, The Castle where he constructed “a 75 x 13-foot brick wall that balances on top of a single copy of Franz Kafka’s The Castle.”
"A gap in the bookshelf." I recently heard this phrase from a podcast entitled "The History of Literature." It was mentioned by the author Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author who wrote Things Fall Apart, as a metaphor for why he became a writer. When he looked at the shelves of world literature, he saw a distinct and clear gap of books that accurately portrayed his people, that told their stories.
And I've been considering that phrase ever since: "A gap in the bookshelf."
People love telling and hearing stories. Be it told around a fire, through a tv screen, or in the classroom, we are attracted to stories because they teach us about life, connect us with others, and provide us with hope. Stories are our libraries of understanding. Which is why we return to our favorites over and over again, because they are comfortable, familiar, and safe.
They are also, almost always, incomplete.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said it this way: "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they aren't true, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story." And I love that. And not because it feels good but because it is profoundly convicting. Especially when I consider my "bookshelf of stories" about others.
That phrase, "a gap in the bookshelf," is a powerful one because, I think we can all agree, when we see a line of books neatly set in a row with an apparent open gap, it's troubling. Or, at the very least, it is evident that something is missing. Another story. And although there are many stories on the shelf, because one is missing, it feels incomplete.
That is also the power of a single story. It can single-handedly change the stereotype of an entire continent, people group, school, or classroom. Even, a brick wall.
Over the past several days, I have been convicted to pursue more stories and spend more time filling in the gaps for I don’t just want a full bookshelf, I want a complete one.
The best of which takes a lifetime to collect.
That’s what I’ve been thinking about this week.
Happy Friday!
#doGREATthings!
Give. Relate. Explore. Analyze. Try.