The Power of the Story

From the Marshall Memo #447

In this New York Times review, David Eagleman sums up some key points from Jonathan Gottschall’s new book, The StoryTelling Animal:

• Humans spend more time immersed in fiction than in the real world. This includes dreams, daydreams, fantasies, movies, and novels.

• A lot of our fictional mind-play is violent – especially our dreams. “They bubble with conflict and struggle,” says Eagleman. “The plots are missing all the real-life boring bits, and what remains is an unrealistically dense collection of trouble.” 

• The job of stories is to simulate potential situations, explore the what-ifs. “Neuroscience has long recognized that emulation of the future is one of the main businesses intelligent brains invest in,” says Eagleman. “Clever animals don’t want to engage in the expensive and potentially fatal game of physically testing every action to discover its consequences.” 

• Stories are the best memory aid. Eagleman says we all remember the scene in Star Wars when Luke Skywalker aims his torpedoes into the vent shaft of the Death Star. “As anyone who teaches realizes, most information bounces off with little impression and no recollection. Good professors and statesmen know the indispensable potency of story.”

• This is backed up by recent insights from neuroscience. “Changing the brain requires the correct neurotransmitters,” says Eagleman, “and those are especially in attendance when a person is curious, is predicting what will happen next, and is emotionally engaged.”

• To stick, stories need moral content. Gottschall’s theory is that humans are hard-wired to produce and consume stories that convey the message that being honest, collaborating with others, and playing by the rules leads to good outcomes. 

• Stories change history. “Consider the influence of Wagner’s operas on Hitler’s self-vision,” says Eagleman, “or the effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on American opinion and culture.” 

• Stories will always be with us. A novel is published every hour, and new forms of storytelling are constantly being born – think reality television. “Our inborn thirst for narrative,” concludes Eagleman, “means that story – its power, purpose, and relevance – will endure as long as the human animal does.” 

“The Moral of the Story” – a review of The StoryTelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012) by David Eagleman in The New York Times Book Review, Aug. 5, 2012, http://nyti.ms/OVMObO