Monday, April 16, 2012

Why Storytellers Lie (article link)

Why Storytellers Lie, an Atlantic Monthly piece by Maura Kelly, highlights a new book by Jonathan Gotschall, called The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. The article addresses some of the main reasons why we might tell stories: for courtship, for instruction, and for a sense of higher purpose. Kelly writes, "We like stories because, as Gotschall puts it, we are 'addicted to meaning'—and meaning is not always the same as the truth."

5 comments:

  1. "(Indeed, many opt for straight-up fictionalization, preferring MFA programs to therapy.)"

    Bwa-hahah! Yet another admits to taking The Cure...

    Interesting piece, but I thought the title should be, ALL Storytellers Lie...

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  2. See also: Lewis Hyde's Trickster Makes This World.

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  3. This is so cool. Now I'm going to think of every conversation as a game of telephone...thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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