Where have all the storytellers gone? To podcasts and visual media; to quick and easily digestible formats that satisfy an insatiable burning to jump from one nugget of news to the next. In other words, storytelling in the traditional sense of the word, has taken a back seat.
As a writer, the rapid consumption culture that has infiltrated the world of media and our acquisition of knowledge leaves me more than a little disillusioned. It’s part of the reason I try, as much as possible, to create more than mere captions when I share bits of Paris on blink-and-you-miss-it platforms like Instagram and Twitter. I am convinced that there is still potential to tease out a narrative even when the average attention span taps out at 10 second. It’s why I reach for magazines that do justice to storytelling; whose editors aren’t afraid of exceeding an inane 500 word limit and dig under the surface of a place, a moment, a spirit. It’s why my book is far more than a guide (you’ll see!) and my work attempts to focus on people who nurture the art of storytelling, whether by words or crafts.
So naturally, it’s why I have gravitated toward L’Instant Parisien, a…
