I'm reading Brian Boyd's On the Origins of Stories, and thinking (once again) about the storytelling process. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how a good songwriter can evoke, in the space of a few minutes, stories with the kind of emotional power that I'd require a whole novel, or at least a short story, to create. The Suzanne Vega song above is a case in point, as is Tracy Chapman's heartbreaking classic, Fast Car.


