The storytelling animal : how stories make us human / 2012.
Publisher: New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2012Description: xvii, 248 p. 22 cm001: 14963ISBN: 9780547391403Subject(s): Script-writing | StorytellingDDC classification: 808.543Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Book | MAIN LIBRARY Book | 808.543 GOT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 096211 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It's easy to say that humans are "wired" for story, but why ?
In this delightful and original book, Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life's complex social problems--just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival.
Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic?
Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more "truthy" than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler's ambitions were partly fueled by a story.
But as Gottschall shows in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral--they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us .
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Preface (p. xi)
- 1 The Witchery of Story (p. 1)
- 2 The Riddle of Fiction (p. 21)
- 3 Hell Is Story-Friendly (p. 45)
- 4 Night Story (p. 68)
- 5 The Mind Is a Storyteller (p. 87)
- 6 The Moral of the Story (p. 117)
- 7 Ink People Change the World (p. 139)
- 8 Life Stories (p. 156)
- 9 The Future of Story (p. 177)
- Acknowledgments (p. 201)
- Notes (p. 203)
- Bibliography (p. 215)
- Credits (p. 231)
- Index (p. 233)
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Gottschall (English, Washington & Jefferson Coll..; Literature, Science, and a New Humanities) views narrative in terms of evolutionary biology in this insightful consideration of all things story. Witty and admirably self-restrained in examining arguably overimaginative storytellers and interpreters from Freud to 9/11 "Truthers" to James Frey, Gotschall suggests that individual story fixations are driven less by unconscious mysteries and more by an innate need to share, problem-solve, and have fun. While he predictably discusses stories from a variety of religions, his analytical observations about young girls at play, the codes of World Wrestling Federation performance, the ritualized arcs of reality TV, and the Lake Woebegone principle-we all think we are above average-are unconventional, entertaining, and instructive. Although the result is a collection of wide-ranging samples that do not altogether cohere, this effect is well suited to a book more concerned with stories than story. The work complements such emergent popularizations of neuroscience as Jonah Lehrer's equally anecdotal How We Decide. VERDICT Although this will interest neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists, and cognitive psychologists looking for creative takes on their complex research, it will mainly appeal to a general readership with a literary bent. Recommended but not essential. [See Prepub Alert, 11/3/11.]-Scott H. Silverman, Earlham Coll. Lib., Richmond, IN (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
This at times cloying and circular extended essay-parts sociology, anthropology, psychology, and literary criticism-seeks to answer one of those sticky questions about human nature: why do we have a fundamental need for story? For Gottschall, who teaches English at Washington & Jefferson College, story serves an evolutionary purpose; it's hard-wired into our brains. Story creation, like dreaming, helps us judge wrongdoing. It is also how we "practice the human skills of social life"-even if we don't consciously remember the story and its lessons. Gottschall interprets "story" broadly: even the vagaries of memory are a form of fictionalization: false memories show how one's past, like one's future, is a realm of fantasy for which we are hard-wired. But Gottschall's evolutionary argument is circular: we are hard-wired for fiction because it is good for us; and we are drawn to fiction because our brains are wired for it. Yet if the argument and approach are scattershot, the writing can be engaging. 74 photos. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.CHOICE Review
A frequent contributor to Psychology Today, Nature, and Science, Gottschall (English, Washington and Jefferson College) draws on the fields of biology, psychology, and neuroscience, among others, in his exploration of why humans are so attracted to stories. Author of several other books and articles on related subjects, and meticulous documenter of his source material, Gottschall clearly has the credentials to explore his chosen subject. He expertly interweaves concepts from cognitive science, literary studies, and folklore with examples from popular culture and high art. Always coming back to the question of why stories are such an integral part of being human, he delves into a number of related mysteries, such as why children's invented games are so preoccupied with danger and violence, and why, in absence of facts, human animals unknowingly invent information to fill the gaps. This book will captivate a wide audience, from those studying literature and folklore to casual readers with an interest in how the brain shapes human behavior. Gottschall's lively style will put all readers at ease. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections. P. A. Riggle Truman State UniversityKirkus Book Review
Literature, Science, and a New Humanities, 2008, etc.) knows that any book about telling stories must be well-written and engaging, and his snapshots of the worlds of psychology, sleep research and virtual reality are larded with sharp anecdotes and jargon-free summaries of current research. His thesis is that humans' capacity to tell stories isn't just a curious aspect of our genetic makeup but an essential part of our being: We tell stories--in fiction, in daydreams, in nightmares--as ways to understand and work through conflicts, the better to be prepared when those conflicts arise in reality. To that end, novels are usually "problem stories" that have strong moral underpinnings. That also helps explain why there are so many fake memoirs, he argues--the instinct to give a conflict-and-resolution arc to stories leads many memoirists to tweak (and even invent) details to fit the pattern. Gottschall uses research into mental illness as a way to explore the intensity of our narrative urge, and he explores how imagined characters can have a real-life impact. (Consider Hitler's obsession with Wagner operas, or the influence of Uncle Tom's Cabin on abolition.) Though novels may change or become less popular, writes the author, the instinct for story is deathless, and his closing pages explore recent phenomena like live-action role-playing and massive multiplayer games for hints of what future storytelling will become. Is World of Warcraft better or worse for our brains than novels? Is violent storytelling a cause for concern? The author discusses such concerns only glancingly. For him, one kind of storytelling is largely as good as any other, but he convincingly argues that story goes on. Gottschall brings a light touch to knotty psychological matters, and he's a fine storyteller himself.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.There are no comments on this title.