Storytelling

In library school I was often confronted with the question “what was the story that got you hooked on reading?”  I would look at them and rack my brain for a suitable white lie answer. There was the Brian Jacques Redwall series that I sort of remember spending Saturdays in bed reading. Or Hardy Boys when we moved in second grade. But these were what I read to pass the time; they did not instill a passion for literature in me. In fact, I left children’s literature behind around fourth or fifth grade when I started reading adult novels by popular fiction authors such as Michael Crichton and Dean Koontz.  Inevitably I would get an embarrassed face and tell my peers what I thought was the truth: I had just returned from two years in the Peace Corps where I lived without electricity so I read, a lot, and found that children’s and teen books were the most enjoyable way to pass the time.  I always felt guilty, that everyone else had a lifelong passion for books marketed towards children and teens, while I was relatively new to the game.

One day, as I turned my brain off and snuck into the black hole of time that is Facebook, I saw a post from Justin Hoenke:

Question: why do we ask people “What was the first book you read?” when instead it should be “What was the first story you experienced?” For me, it was Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo.

Epiphany. I didn’t hesitate as I had before; I immediately knew it was Final Fantasy VII for the PSX.  I played Final Fantasy VII with three of my best friends everyday in the summer between 8th and 9th grade in what can only be called a communal caffeine fueled storytime.  The story was the most compelling, and confusing, one I had ever seen in my young life.  When my PSX was out of the picture, I bought the PC version to play on my own. When my new copy of Windows XP wouldn’t play it in college, I found a hack that allowed for compatibility.  Ever since that summer I played other turn based RPGs with pure abandon, 8-12 hours at a time until the work week starts or it is completed.

This made for an easy transition when I, later in life, discovered kid lit. For those of you unfamiliar with old school turn based rpgs, most of the stories  were based on a hero with a humble background making an epic change in the world, –or an anti-hero–, while growing as a person themselves.  What better crossover is there than children’s and teen literature, where the protagonist often has low expectations placed on them, is put in a difficult situation and expected to rise to the challenge changing themselves, the community, or the world?

Videogames, not books,  got me hooked on stories.