A raconteur is a story-teller or yarn spinner, the difference
being that the storyteller will keep the truth in sight while a yarn
spinner will not be bound by the truth. Before the miracle of
inter-netted communications, and especially before towns had a newspaper
publisher, the news was spread by raconteurs who tended to stand at
street corners where most folks passed to go to work or to shop for food
and other goods.
The raconteur earned his living by telling interesting stories. Perhaps someone would toss a coin in his hat or a carrot in his crate if the story was good or if the information in it was useful. If he got no coin or carrot, the skilled raconteur moved on to a different corner where a different audience might be kinder to him. Likely, raconteurs evolved from bards or from minstrels.
A bard was a poet. He recited traditional stories of fame or woe. The Charles Dickens Christmas story would be an example of the sort of story he might tell. Again, if he is animated and interesting, he might get something to eat after the telling. A minstrel set his stories to music. Musicals today draw their earliest beginning from minstrels. Any of these communicators might be employed outright by powerful people who had political ambitions or by vain people who had the money to employ them.
In the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," Sir Robin employed a minstrel who followed him and sang about his heroic deeds. Apparently, Sir Robin did not pay his minstrel well, because the minstrel switched the message to sing about Sir Robin's recent cowardice. This outcome between a bard or a minstrel and his employer was possible. A politician took a great chance by hiring a bard to tell or a minstrel to sing a carefully crafted message of praise of him all about town. Whatever was the agreement for pay might be undone by blackmail. "Pay double now, or I will sing that it was a lie, and that you are a fraud."
Today, we live in the twenty-first century. While the work of minstrels has become the performance of bands and musicals (shows), and the work of bards is written in books, the raconteur can be found everywhere today. He or she poles a flatboat filled with tourists in the Everglades, drives a raised vehicle filled with visitors at the Disney World Animal Kingdom Park, and on the internet, raconteurs are called bloggers.
The raconteur earned his living by telling interesting stories. Perhaps someone would toss a coin in his hat or a carrot in his crate if the story was good or if the information in it was useful. If he got no coin or carrot, the skilled raconteur moved on to a different corner where a different audience might be kinder to him. Likely, raconteurs evolved from bards or from minstrels.
A bard was a poet. He recited traditional stories of fame or woe. The Charles Dickens Christmas story would be an example of the sort of story he might tell. Again, if he is animated and interesting, he might get something to eat after the telling. A minstrel set his stories to music. Musicals today draw their earliest beginning from minstrels. Any of these communicators might be employed outright by powerful people who had political ambitions or by vain people who had the money to employ them.
In the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," Sir Robin employed a minstrel who followed him and sang about his heroic deeds. Apparently, Sir Robin did not pay his minstrel well, because the minstrel switched the message to sing about Sir Robin's recent cowardice. This outcome between a bard or a minstrel and his employer was possible. A politician took a great chance by hiring a bard to tell or a minstrel to sing a carefully crafted message of praise of him all about town. Whatever was the agreement for pay might be undone by blackmail. "Pay double now, or I will sing that it was a lie, and that you are a fraud."
Today, we live in the twenty-first century. While the work of minstrels has become the performance of bands and musicals (shows), and the work of bards is written in books, the raconteur can be found everywhere today. He or she poles a flatboat filled with tourists in the Everglades, drives a raised vehicle filled with visitors at the Disney World Animal Kingdom Park, and on the internet, raconteurs are called bloggers.
"Pondicherry," https://www.amazon.com/Pondicherry-Tony-Grayson-ebook/dp/B00Q7E39Z6
Tony is a writer, an author of several published novels, and an independent publisher. He wrote and published "A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists," "Goodnight Paige," "The Star of India," and a guidebook titled "How Tony Wrote and Published Two Novels." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICK8qpv0a30
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