In the Tangles of Our Minds: Why Stories Move Us
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Gary Schmidt
It is one of our oldest human art forms: storytelling. We have appreciated stories as entertainment, been enriched by their cultural wisdom, admired their aesthetics, and been engaged by their play with plot and character and language. The forms have changed of course; but the account of Cain and Able is, at its root, not so very far in meaning from Steinbeck’s East of Eden, or even Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. At the heart of all stories—all good stories—are the essential human questions that the arts and humanities pose so effectively, and at the end of those questions is story’s refusal to yield simple answers. In fact, ambiguity often is the answer. After all, who can read the story of Lazarus and not wonder at the complexity of the moment when Lazarus steps from the bright glories of paradise and back into a cold stone tomb, wrapped in stinking strips of cloth, mortal once more, and knowing that some day, he was going to have to do this dying thing all over again? We human beings, we tell stories to figure out and live with our mortal humanity as manifested in moments such as that hard resurrection. This is what the arts, at their best, do—and why they are so critical to the health of our species.
Gary D. Schmidt is the best-selling author of children’s literature and young adult fiction, including the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and the Newbery Honor book The Wednesday Wars and the National Book Award finalist Okay for Now. His most recent novel, Just Like That, was published this past January. He also contributed to the Star Wars anthology From A Certain Point of View: Star Wars by writing the only chapter from Yoda's point of view. Schmidt received his undergraduate degree in English from Gordon College in 1979. Thereafter he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving an MA in English in 1981 and then a PhD in medieval literature in 1985. He joined the faculty in the Calvin University English department in 1985.
Publication(s) for this event
Just Like That
by
Gary
Schmidt
Clarion Books (January 5, 2021)
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The January Series cultivates deep thought and conversations about important issues of the day in order to inspire cultural renewal and make us better global citizens in God's world.
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For over 30 years, the January Series of Calvin University has been one of the leading lecture/cultural arts series in the country. The series has been a three-time recipient of the Silver Bowl Award as the “Best Campus Lecture Series in the U.S.A.” by the International Platform Society. The diversity of presenters and topics has changed as the world of ideas has changed.
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