THE FUNHOUSE OF YOUR LIFE C3R2
CIRQUE THREE ~ A STORYTELLING OF YOU
RIDE TWO
THE FUNHOUSE OF YOUR LIFE ~
n homage to theme parks everywhere and of every time, a majestic and aesthetically beautiful vintage fun house from the 1950s. I’d like it to be as original as possible, with simply the words “THANK YOU TO A TIME GONE BY” over-hanging the entrance.
GUIDE ~ Eddy Unsteady: Eddy is a seven legged spider who used to steal shoes, because if he bought them, he’d always end up with one shoe he didn’t need. However, he eventually ended up liking the feel of the ground beneath his toes, and went on to becoming a shoemaker for others. He works at the funhouse because that’s all he thinks one can ever gather from life at all, fun. (*F insert photo pf Eddy).
I grab you by the wrist and start running with you. I’m back. I’m younger. I’m 14. And we are suddenly on electric skateboards with sparks flying off every part of us, heading toward a Massive white inflatable funhouse…
I look like this:
“I’m not going to teach you about story structure. Nor about arcs, character development or plot twists. This is because I want to teach you storytelling, not just so that you can write stories, but because I want you to be able to read your life. To see it, as the masterpiece that it is, through the kaleidoscopic spectacles of your own eyeballs.
I’ve had a life full of wonderful stories, but the way I experienced them was unlike any book I had ever read. It’s probably because I didn’t read good books, and I shunned poetry for too long. However, I did suffer the lack of neat and tidy answers to my problems, I suffered from the lack of closure and catharsis promised to me through so many of my early childhood books. Irresponsible storytelling led me to believe that if I worked hard enough, I’d conquer my dreams, that if I loved in myself, I’d be healthy, That if I met someone I loved, we would have a functional and enjoyable relationship. It’s funny then for me to now consider where the true “myths” of our world now hide. Magic spells used to be in my “myth” category. Until I yelled at someone so much that I broke their trust in me, and I realised my mean words had indeed cast a spell and changed my own destiny.
In a few short chapters, I’m going to swim amongst the kelp of storytelling as I have come to know it, the reasons we tell our stories, and reveal to you some truths and secrets about my own story that I haven’t yet really shared with anyone. Why? Because I believe that if we can allow our tentacles to wander away from traditional narrative and it’s reasons, we can access the empathy that is impossible to avoid when we share our truths, and from that generated empathy, we can build a more loving world.
- YOUR STORY IS YOUR LIFE:
- WHAT I’M NOT GOING TO BOTHER WITH
- ALL SPACE IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SPACE
- OUTSIDE-INSIDE STORIES
- THE FAMILY RULES
- UNGLAMOUROUS TRUTHS WITHIN
- PATTERNS
- PSYCHIC POETRY
- OUR STORY & THE OTHERS
- CAPTIVATION & QUESTIONS
- ENDINGS IN A NEVER-ENDING WORLD
The eyeballs blink and the laughter of the Funhouse breathes you in, and whoosh, you’re falling and bouncing from the left eyeball down the stem and into a giant seemingly endless all white jumpy castle. Inside the first room. The funhouse is covered in lists. All kinds of lists.
GUIDE: WASPY (insert character description). Waspy, a girl dressed head to toe in black feathers ushers you through the room. She doesn’t speak. She wanders and wonders about your life, just as awestruck as you are.
It’s full of things. Things that are special to you. Things people have given you. Things you have made. Things your grandmother may have owned. Treasures. Trinkets. What other people might just think is stuff…
You hear a blend of all the many voices you know in your life, ask you these questions…
(HW) Close your eyes an imagine someone close to you, find their voice in your mind, then find their voice inn the question, then change for each question…
“WHAT ARE THESE THINGS? And do you remember their stories? What memories do you remember when you look at, or hold, each piece?”
LIST
Can you scan the, photograph the, draw them, or somehow take note of them here…Just a few things…
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Waspy runs ahead of you and you follow her down a rotating tunnel, black feathers lace her invisible footsteps. Tiny pieces of ripped up brown paper swing from a huge tangle of hanging red wool and gently tap you on the head as you try to keep our balance. You stop to read them. They are names, names, names. The names of all the people you have come to know and love, and the names you have heard from your family and friends, names off people you have yet to meet, names of those who have passed away, but who you are interested to know more about:
You keep track of the names, you hold them close, you might even write down something about the person, something that stands out about them, something that makes them them:
_LIST__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
Find the strangest person you ever met and ask them about the strangest thing that ever happened to them..
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who did you fall in love with and why? So far in life…
___________________________________
And as if by magic you find yourself trying to walk up an almost vertical wall of black sand, that blows around your ankles like kelp that bites.
Collect as much of your life as you can in these pages, and keep on, collecting throughout your life …
MORE LISTS TO KEEP:
Odd situations:
Weird endings/solutions:
Terrifying moments:
Magical days, when where and with whom:
What matters to you now?:
Do you think you will change in the future, howso?
Scenarios where you allowed someone to change your mind:
Scenarios where you allowed yourself to change your mind:
Scenarios where you changed someone else’s mind:
What to you want to do with your life?
Compare this to what you think n you might like to “be” in your life? Are the two things different? Can you only “be” Ione thing?
When you look at what you want to do in your life and there perhaps many versions therefore of what you can be?
What was the beginning of your story?
What are stories?
Where do stories come from?
Why do we need stories?
How do you know fact from fiction, back then, nowadays and in the future?
What is an outside story?
What is an inside story?
Waspy is dancing at the end of the mountain of black sand and you finally peer over the edge.
But you see absolutely nothing.
You follow her footsteps through the nothingness, grabbing at the pages of this journal to keep you stable.
Do you believe in cosmic poetry? This is my reading:
Can you draw yours?
Can you read the languages of the universe such as co-incidences? How do they play out in stories?
For instance, ask someone close to you what a METAPHOR is, then ask another 2 people. Write their answers here, or get them to write their answers here:
Do the stories you hear, read or watch on TV match your own life? Do they mirror the exact way life goes?
Or do they follow a pattern quite unlike your life?
What makes your life different to the stories in the movies?
Do you believe in Fate, Chance or Chaos theory the most? Ask someone who often wears a hat or someone who loves the colour red to explain to you what these theories are and what they mean before you answer this question:
____________________________
Find someone in your family who reads a lot of stories, biographies mainly. Ask them to explain to you what Catharsis means, and summarise it here in just a handful of words or a code only YOU can understand….
And what of your:
Birthday?
star sign, ?
belief system?
List of major events so far?
The space around you, from a baby until now, whose land? Whose home, how is this defined? What type of environment do you live in?
Any recurring themes, patterns, places, animals, names, letters, numbers, magic?
Valuable things you have learned
Your family dynamic
Great great great grandfather and mother? Can you draw your family tree here… How far back can you go?
(FAMILY FORESTS)
KABOOM
You and Waspy spontaneously combust, and you find yourself floating down from the sky with no wings, no parachute just a slow graceful land
To continue through CIRQUE 3, blindly you stumble. Until you open your eyes and you are face to face looking directly into the eyes of a chef called ALP.
“Come into the Labyrinth of Kitchens” they say, and you start again to see. Leave emerge from everywhere, seahorses in the sky squeal and tell you to go THIS way and THAT way and Alp starts counting down from 10.
10,9,5,8,6,5,4,3,2,
ONE