Transmedia Storytelling Principles: Patron Saint n.1 - Sheherazade

Here we are at FOE4, and Henry Jenkins has just gave his keynote about Transmedia Storytelling Principles. Amazing.

For our clients and those of you who have seen our speeches/workshops, this we are about to show is not new. But after seeing Henry's principles we wanted to share one of our Patron Saints, the most important: Scheherazade (in the US) or Sherazade (in Brazil), from the Arabian Nights.

For us, she was one of the first storytellers to make a hyperlinked story that really got all the transmedia principles (above). And she is one of the reasons of why our motto is "Transmedia Storytelling since 3000 B.C.":

• Drillability
  Every story Scheherazade went deeper and deeper. She created an entire universe around the rabbit holes she created in her text. For example, in Aladdin's story - she dug into the story of the magic carpet, explaining why it was magic.
• Continuity vs. Multiplicity
  The great majority of the Arabian Nights had stories that had continuity between each other... and 1001 nights, 1001 stories, certainly provides multiplicity!
• Immersion/Extractability
  The sheer immersiveness of Scheherazade's stories were what made the Sultan fall in love with her (and give up on killing her). Many of the stories became extracts and parallel plots.
• World Building
  By breathing life into Arabian mythology & legends, Scheherazade built that immersive world, that world where you can drill down deeply and explore broadly. And she references specific historical people - building the world out further and connecting it up to reality.
• Seriality
  Come on. There's 1001 nights. If that isn't serial, I don't know what is!
• Subjectivity
  Look at the titles of the stories in the 1001 nights: they're all referring to specific people. All these characters, all these perspectives - all these different understandings of a shared story-world!
• Performance
  Scheherezade's storytelling isn't written. It's a complete performance - and it saves her life and thousands of others...