‘n Mens sou stories ook soos volg kon onderskei:
Persoonlike stories is die lewensstories van mense wat werklik leef of geleef het. Persoonlike stories kan dalk betekenisvol wees vir jou en vir die mense wat direk of indirek met jou kontak het
of gehad het of vir mense wat kan identifiseer met jou lewensstorie of dit insiggewend of interessant vind.
Universele stories is die stories van fiktiewe mense of fantasie karakters. Universele stories kan dalk betekenisvol wees vir ‘n wyer groep mense, wat onbekend is aan die skepper van die storie. Daar is soveel universele stories as wat daar karakters is, waaraan die mens se verbeelding gestalte kan gee.
Post-modernistiese stories verwyder bogenoemde skeidslyn tussen persoonlike en universele stories. Post-modernistiese stories kan dus, onder andere, die stories van werklike mense in fiktiewe omstandighede vertel, of die stories van werklike en fiktiewe mense vermeng om bykomende moontlikhede te skep. Post-modernistiese stories kan ook reeds bestaande stories herskep of hersirkuleer.
We live by stories, we also live in them. One way or another we are living the stories planted in us early or along the way, or are also living the stories we planted – knowingly or unknowingly – in ourselves. We live stories that either give our lives meaning or negate it with meaninglessness. If we change the stories we live by, quite possibly we change our lives.
Ben Okri in A Way of Being Free
Reading, therefore, is a co-production between writer and reader. The simplicity of this tool is astounding. So little, yet out of it whole worlds, eras, characters, continents, people never encountered before, people you wouldn’t care to sit next to in a train, people that don’t exist, places you’ve never visited, enigmatic fates, all come to life in the mind, painted into existence by the reader’s creative powers. In this way the creativity of the writer calls up the creativity of the reader. Reading is never passive.
Ben Okri in A Way of Being Free
