Once Upon a Time: A Personal Guide to
Telling and Writing Your Own Story
Ross Talarico
Story Line Press, 2004
Once Upon a Time offers writers, readers, teachers, and learners an
extraordinary glimpse into the authentic lives and stories of real people. Ross
Talarico presents a moving tribute to the storyteller in us all, hearkening back to
a time before television when people told their stories to pass on knowledge, to
remember, to connect with each other.
The only full time “Writer-in-Resident'’ in America to be sponsored by
a city government, Talarico formed community groups to encourage the
development of stories in the wasteland of consumerism and instant gratification
through non-stories, i.e. commercials. As a result of these efforts, the reader is
treated to a myriad of stories from these compelling origins. He begins and ends
with his own stories about his father, his sons, and himself with a generous gift
of stories from men, women, old, young—all races and creeds—all human and
tellers of tales.
Throughout, Talarico develops a solution to our current image-based,
non-story consumptive lifestyles. He promotes subversion through analysis. If
we teach ourselves to look critically at the non-stories, we see their effects on
our own internal storyteller. He recommends this process because by doing this
we could show the corporate world that we want more than a slick presentation
of a non-world—we want authentic stories that make connections to our
emotions rather than our wallet.
His ideas coalesce in one of the most memorable sections of this
writers’ guide—a comparison between a Coke ad and the story of an urban
youth. In the Coke ad, a black teenage boy boards a bus, wearing headphones.
As he walks down the aisle, people on the bus appear anxious or nervous until
he begins to sing. The audience is reassured through this simple act and the
accompanying music that this young man is apgelic and safe. The commercial
subconsciously hits home with a young black man sitting at the back of the bus.
Talarico interprets this moment, “[. . .] in the world of Coca Cola, in that
corporate shelter where we can feel safe, there’s no need for anxiety because
blacks, even young, energetic black teenagers, take their place obediently and
harmlessly, where—in the back of the bus, of course, where they belong!” In
contrast, Talarico offers the story of Germone Wright, an eighteen-year-old
black youth. In Germone’s story, we see him come to terms with what many
young urban youth deal with—the disappearance of their fathers:
As I looked up at the sky, I saw only half the moon, looking so
dim. It looked like a light bulb about to blow. As I looked
down, the ground seemed broken up too, cracks in the street.