The Atlantic: In a new book out next week, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, author Jonathan Gotschall discusses why we humans have such a strong interest in stories, and argues that we're all storytellers—and all liars too, even if most of us don't realize it, even if most of us are lying primarily to ourselves.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Why Storytellers Lie
The Atlantic: In a new book out next week, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, author Jonathan Gotschall discusses why we humans have such a strong interest in stories, and argues that we're all storytellers—and all liars too, even if most of us don't realize it, even if most of us are lying primarily to ourselves.
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2 comments:
This article doesn't tell me anything new. I have always known that humans have a tendency to exaggerate the truth and tell completely fabricated stories. This is perhaps one of the best qualitites of the human race. Throughout time, people have connected lying and falsificastion of facts to bad people and ideals, however I argue that it is actually one of the best things we have. Being able to tell stories leads to some of the best products of the human race, books, novels, movies, theater. These thing all define our times and society.
This article, while it does explain ideas that I was already aware of, is interesting in that it is reminding me of the fact. It isn't something that I am aware of doing as I riddle off one story or another but if I think back, I have definitely done this once or twice. Sometimes you can't help but to forget a detail and fill in the blank that frames you in a favorable light. Other times, it is reactionary and one simply can't help him/ herself.
I agree with the comment above, this is the way that we shape our culture and how we evolve those stories into great ideas. It is important that some aspect of our imagination should be at work at all times of the day. If anything else, storytelling does make life a bit more interesting.
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