Spending a few days under the weather allowed me to
catch a few documentaries that I might never have had the chance to see. One such documentary was “Fonda on Fonda”
where Jane, Peter, and Shirlee Fonda along with many other celebrities talk
about the late, Henry Fonda. As one of
my favorite acting families, I never knew that Henry Fonda was an illustrator
and storyteller. Apparently, when he was
stationed in the Navy, he would write and draw stories to Peter and Jane when
they were little. It was his way of
staying connected across the miles. Fonda created an ongoing fairytale about a
fish called Wilbur that he would write about sharing stories of the Navy and
being at sea.
What amazed me the most about Fonda being a
storyteller is that he has always been considered (at least by his children) as
someone that feared spontaneity and real emotions, especially after his first
wife committed suicide. This led me to think about storytellers lacking pathos in
real life? Is storytelling simply a
performance? I tend to think, no. Storytelling is about revealing true emotions
and heartfelt thought. Perhaps Fonda
expressed in his writings things he could not express orally; many artists
cannot express their true identity, so they turn to their art.
This is one clear distinction between oral
storytelling and stories. It is the
storyteller that brings the action alive causing the “ audience affect.”. Affect
is the energy that pushes people toward pleasures and fascinations, as each of
us perceives differently, remembers differently, and takes our own
journeys. According to Aristotle, an audience
attends to things which affect them, and if they are not attentive, then the subject
means nothing to them personally. Concerned more with energy or various
combined energies, affect actualizes how people interact. These energies are not necessarily
controllable, giving people that ability to connect to things, people, ideas,
sensations, ambitions, relations, and a number of other internal desires.
With A Happy Heart,
Cynde
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