memes

That's because this is the normal flow of things. Pare the mediums away, and you're left with the same basic core: Stories.

The storyteller always has a reason for telling a story. Even when they are only setting out to entertain.

To be able to separate one's actual feelings, knowledge, and values in order to write a purely entertaining tale, requires that the storyteller be aware of them. At which point they must then take an extra step to insert others.

What stories are, at their heart is the passing of an abstract message or purpose encoded in a surface pattern meant to be cognitively sticky.

The reason might be to teach the young in the tribe the seasonal crop patterns as it was thousands of years ago, as it still is in some places.

Or it could be a commentary on the social state of the times. Or any other thing.

But the other thing a story must be, is engrossing.

A good story must be entertaining or funny or terrifying. It must tug at the emotions of the listener in some way.

That's what makes it stick. That's how stories work.

There is nothing wrong with refusing to dig deeper into the meaning of a tale, especially if it's presented or done poorly. That turns it into a lesson.

But the best stories, it doesn't matter if you seek out the deeper meaning or not.

It'll be there regardless and so will the story, and if and when the listener grows, the meaning will make itself clear on the next recounting.