New Story, Old Story

I had a thought.  It went something like this:

Many people believe that every “new” story is really just the same as a hundred “old” stories told in a new context.  That Tristan and Iseult, Odysseus and his his adventures, Oedipus’ epic inner conflict, merely reveal archetypes that will forever resonate with an enduring human nature.  They illustrate “innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge.” (Wikipedia)  And I am inclined to agree.

And yet we know that time passes.  So I thought, couldn’t we say just as truly that every story when retold in a new time is a new story?  Because story is an activity between two people– one a thousand years dead, perhaps, but at least one in a new time.  So a play by Aristophanes when performed today will undoubtedly draw laughs from different moments than it did from its ancient audience.  Many will be the same, but the context is different; the social conventions are different; what is taboo, what is accepted, what is hilarious and what is lame.

I believe in an aspect of Jung’s archetypes.  Stories do seem to boil down to a few common themes: The Love Story, The Revenge Story, The Homecoming Story, etc.  But wouldn’t you say that each is also something unique in itself, much like a human person?  I am as much Odysseus as Finding Nemo is The Odyssey.