One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson is an interesting mix of memoir and literary criticism. I particularly enjoyed the parts about the power of storytelling.

“Imagination is key. To see past the present, with its assumptions and constraints. To see round corners. For me, it was reading. It was literature. But all art is there to develop our imaginative capacity.”

In a world where everyone is becoming more isolated, societies are more polarised and technology and megalomaniacs seem to dominate the news - our worlds - Jeanette Winterson makes a call to arms by asking us - or is that pleading with us - to recognise the power of creativity, the mind expanding beauty of the novel , the might of story telling and the universal need for imagination in our lives.

It is a visit to the theatre as a young child to watch a pantomime - Aladdin - that opened up Jeanette Winterson’s world - an enlightenment of the possibility that stories that give us. Using Shahrazad’s stories from One Thousand and One Nights, we are taken on a magical carpet of tales : of wrong doers, genii, magic, survival and incredible characters.

But it is within these tales and the power of storytelling that we are asked to reflect on universal questions of love, belonging, trust , the human need for wanting more - greed and avarice- being truthful, and what do we actually mean by happiness.

Juxtaposing the tales against societal changes and global issues -poverty, feminism, oppression, the failure of politics- helping us to look at our own stories and the world about us.

This is a powerful and persuasive argument of the importance of reading and books to open up imaginations and minds to see alternative paths, build tolerance and compassion and ultimately build a future that embraces love and humanity. This is not idealistically naive but highlights what we have lost and could further lose but still have a chance to save. Attention is given to the closing of minds through scrolling world of social media and extremism hijacking lives. Those of us who lived BSM - Before the Smart Phone- know the difference and impact.

Articulate, captivating , hypnotic and also entertaining ( the retelling of Shahrazad’s stories are enthralling) This may be a book for the already converted - the lovers of fiction and creativity and the arts- but equally this may get a new audience( or all of us ) to further consider the power of storytelling and determining a different future where our personal story takes us all on a wider path of diversity and happiness and hope for the future .

Long live books - or at least the freedom to be independently imaginative


Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for the advance read copy

Quotes:

Social pressure can be avoided. Social media is unavoidable.

Literature allows complexity, but complexity doesn’t mean obscurity. Literature doesn’t mean boring. What we are hoping for – well, what I am hoping for – is a piece of work with the power to captivate us on many levels.

So no, your TikTok videos won’t bring you meaning, neither will social media’s weapons of mass distraction, that shrink the human mind to its smallest scope. Needing the next dopamine hit from the outside every few minutes is a miserable way to live. It’s a strategy of discontent, and it makes it harder to settle down with a text that asks for our complete attention.

I am aware that reading, the ability to read, the love of reading, might not be part of the coming human journey. We will have music. We will have visual art and moving pictures. We will have theatre. We will have storytelling. Will we have reading?