Jonathan Gottschall

The Storytelling Animal

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“Insightful…draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us.”—The New York Times Book Review
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 remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It’s easy to say that humans are “wired” for story, but why?
In this delightful, 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, stories can also powerfully change the world for the better. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.
“Lively.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Absorbing.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“One of my favorite evolutionary psych writers—always insightful and witty.”—Steven Pinker
This book is currently unavailable
316 printed pages
Original publication
2012
Publication year
2012
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
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Impressions

  • Boonsiri Somchitshared an impression4 years ago
    👍Worth reading

    A good read

  • Alicia Reyes Morenoshared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot

Quotes

  • Ivanahas quoted2 months ago
    We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories
  • Natalia Méndezhas quoted2 years ago
    The brain is not designed for story; there are glitches in its design that make it vulnerable to story. Stories, in all their variety and splendor, are just lucky accidents of the mind’s jury-rigged construction. Story may educate us, deepen us, and give us joy. Story may be one of the things that makes it most worthwhile to be human. But that doesn’t mean story has a biological purpose.
  • Natalia Méndezhas quoted2 years ago
    While our bodies are always locked into a specific here and now, our imaginations free us to roam space-time.

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