Revealing Meaning

This quote by the philosopher Hannah Arendt that I've posted previously about storytelling floats around the Internet in this shortened form.

“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”

Today, however, I went and looked up the original in Arendt's Men in Dark Times from 1970. The quote is as follows:

"It is true that storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it, that it brings about consent and reconciliation with things as they really are, and that we may even trust it to contain eventually by implication that last word which we expect from the "day of judgment." - Hannah Arendt

Wow. Heady stuff.

I'll be performing a piece from my memoir at Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis on November 20th and 21st, 2009 at 8pm. I also have a piece in the current issue, #2, of Burly Bird. For more information about my writing, teaching or performance please visit my website.