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Tell Me A New Story
By Richard Lacayo

Once upon a time, it seemed that nearly all stories began at the beginning (or even "In the beginning..."). They ended at The End. Then came the 20th century. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan stepped down the opening sentence of Ulysses, Gregor Samsa woke up a cockroach, and nothing was the same anymore. The dream logic of surrealism, the theater of the absurd, the shock edits of the French New Wave all followed. Soon you could have an ape-man throw a bone in the air and — blink — it's an orbiting spaceship.

That was in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now it is 2001. The changes are in our nervous system now, reworking the pathways by which narratives find their way in. Surrealism? Shock edits? Every rock video uses that stuff. But the people we profile in this month's chapter of Innovators — the storytellers — are the ones bringing even further

 


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The ability to clone humans
A cure for cancer
Extending the average life past 100
Other
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About the Series

PHOTOS: Petraglyphs by MACDUFF EVERTON/CORBIS
Mark Amerika by JEFFREY LOWE FOR TIME
Helen DeWitt by CATRINA GENOVESE FOR TIME
David Gordon Green by MELANIE DUNEA/CPI FOR TIME
Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez by MOJGAN B. AZIMI FOR TIME
Suzan-Lori Parks by JONATHAN SAUNDERS FOR TIME
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