I read a fascinating review of Jonathan Gottschall’s new book The Storytelling Animal in the New York Times Book Review. It’s worth reading the whole review, but here are the highlights that intrigued me most:
He notes the sheer bulk of our lives that we spend in fictional worlds, waking or sleeping: “When all is tallied up, the decades we spend in the realm of fantasy outstrip the time we spend in the real world…Neverland is our evolutionary niche, our special habitat.”
We aren’t spending all that time escaping into a “more blissful reality.” “Trouble…is the universal grammar of stories.”
For a story “to capture and influence, it can’t be plagued with moral repugnance…If the narrative doesn’t contain the suitable kind of virtue, brains don’t absorb it…. This leads to the suggestion that story’s role is intensely moralistic. Stories serve the biological function of encouraging pro-social behavior.”
Gottschall’s ultimate conclusion: “Fiction can change the world.”
Now that’s the kind of conclusion a fiction writer wants to hear! Another book on my overloaded to-be-read list.
Hi Judith, you’ve just put it on my expanding list too, it looks really interesting.
I can’t wait to read this one, it sounds right up my alley.
I’d love to hear back how you like this book when you read it. Seems like one of those books that could really make a difference to one’s thinking. Do post a response to the book when you’ve got one.
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