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    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

    Written by Jonathan Gottschall

    Narrated by Kris Koscheski

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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 long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. It's easy to say that humans are "wired" for story, but why?

    In this delightful and 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 in this remarkable book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral—they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 24, 2012
    ISBN9781452679921

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    Reviews for The Storytelling Animal

    4/5

    115 ratings33 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be an interesting and well-written exploration of the power of storytelling. It delves into the neuroscience and everyday impact of stories, offering multiple cultural and historical perspectives. While some reviewers found it generic or lacking in certain areas, others appreciated the informative and enjoyable nature of the book. However, there were negative reviews criticizing the book for being misogynistic, superficial, and poorly researched. Overall, the book provides valuable insights into the science and enjoyment of storytelling, making it a worthwhile read for those interested in the subject.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Delightful book that I put on my list a couple of years ago when I heard about it on NPR, and only now stopped to read. It pairs well with some of the memory research/reading I've done. Gottschall discusses memory later in the book and says Memory isn't an outright fiction; it is merely a fictionalization.
      With my understanding of memory encoding and extraction, that's about as spot on as one could get. The commonalities of every form of story in our lives may seem generalized, or trivialized, but if you stop to think ... again spot on. No matter how far we travel into literary history, and no matter how deep we plunge into the jungles and badlands of world folklore, we always find the same astonishing thing: their stories are just like ours.

      And they are. There is something to this. And it's very readable.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Contrary to what might be expected, the author focuses not as much on "artistic" fiction, but rather on the way it it is necessary for human mind to make up a story and live it, from dreams to personal identity.My only complaint is that each topic is given no more than cursory overview, but still, that is enough to get a general picture.
    • 3/5
      Having a background in literary theory, the book itself felt a bit too generic, lots of the things mentioned here were familiar to me. However, it was an enjoyable enough, there’s plenty of humour and fun examlpes in it!
    • 4/5
      This is more a generic book on the subject of storytelling, than a scientific account on its origins and evolution.
    • 3/5
      Not quite as meaty as I'd hoped. This is more of a pop psychology overview of storytelling and the brain, storytelling and society, and a mishmash of other ideas that he first presents as theories and then proceeds to repeat over and over as proven truths. It was a pleasant read, though, with many interesting anecdotes (though some of the scenarios he makes up are truly disturbing and unnecessary, ick).
    • 5/5
      This book was far too short. And I mean that in a flattering way. It was wonderful. I had never thought about story as an effect of evolution, although it makes perfect sense that storytelling would be the result of biology just like so much else in human psychology. I just wish we knew more about it than we do. Although research is being done even now on the subject, so maybe in five or ten years there will be a new book on the topic. Fascinating.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable but not earthshattering - but I did like his choice of examples.
    • 4/5
      onathan Gottschall's book explores the ways in which man is a story-telling creature, why this is so and what telling stories does for us, individually and collectively. Chapters cover everything from sacred creation myths to dreams to the inherent unreliability of memoir to propaganda to television commercials to tweets, video games and conspiracy theories. Gottschall has a light hand and the book is both an entertaining and informative read, although for many of us who work with stories, not a great deal is new and he doesn't go into anything with great depth. This is not to say it's without many wonderful, thoughtful passages and there's a lot of great and thought-provoking information for anyone interested in how stories come to be and how they affect us. I particularly enjoyed the number of quotes and conclusions from other sources the author pulled together. Here's a couple: "The psychologist and novelist Keith Oatley calls stories the flight simulators of human social life." of "As William James once wrote, 'There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important.' The same is true of stories." I suspect I'll be using that one with my writing students. Or: "Tolstoy believed that an artist's job is to 'infect' his audience with his own ideas and emotions--'the stronger the infection, the better is the art as art.' Tolstoy was right--the emotions and ideas in fiction are highly contagious and people tend to overestimate their immunity to them." What a lovely thing for a fiction writer to hear! Snort. I recommend this book to anyone who is engaged in writing, or who is curious about how stories work and how we use them.
    • 4/5
      Interesting and well written. Examining stories from multiple perspectives, explaining and taking to account various cultural and historical angles.
      I appreciated it a lot.
    • 4/5
      One of the most interesting books I've read in ages. It left me with an intense desire to hone my own skills as a storyteller.
    • 1/5
      I found it not engaging and slow. I gave up on half of the second chapter.
    • 3/5
      The author draws from such fields as psychology, biology, and neuroscience to explain why humans are hard-wired for telling and enjoying stories. Breezy and interesting.

    • 3/5
      I'm having trouble deciding what this book is actually about. It covers a lot of ground, and I think that is one of the problems I'm having with it. Even though the book is listed at 248 pages, only 199 pages are actual text. The rest of the book is notes,a bibliography, acknowledgments, credits and an index.

      The first few chapters cover the history of storytelling, the puzzle as to why it dominates human culture across the ages, always with the same components, and scientific studies. Lot of good information in those chapters.

      There are also chapters on conspiracy theory,video gaming, religious belief that seems to have a heavy atheist influence, Hitler, memoir-are all stories fiction, then? This book seems to have that bent--an angle I'm having trouble believing--and story's future.

      The last chapters seem to come around to the questions posed in the first. It's much of the material in between that I'm having trouble fitting into the context of the book.

      I think the problem is the scope is too big for the 199 pages of text. There is also a bit of professionalism that seems to be lacking in some of the photos used to illustrate several points. This book should be above using photos with obscene gestures and porn (which says what about the author's belief in where porn fits in storytelling--it's acceptable? why else is the photo in there?) There aren't other photos better suited to making his points? A swear word shows up once in a while as well, which brings the professionalism down a notch.

      The text itself contains no citations or footnotes, so what information came from the references in the bibliography is impossible to discern.

      While this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, the first few chapters and the last chapter are full of interesting, thought provoking information that I've highlighted and flagged. I've also recommended this book to others--in spite of my difficulties, it is worth reading.
    • 1/5
      Misogynistic, superficial and not well researched. I could write a whole book about everything I find wrong with his assertions. I thought this would be an anthropological and sociological study of how story has made us human, but most of his references are from questionable sources or cherry picked studies that have been refuted by many in their field. Don't bother reading this book.
    • 5/5
      Great and very interesting book, well read and quite informative
    • 5/5
      This is a very well written and researched dive into the power of story! Much neuroscience, interesting links with our everyday lives and how story influences almost everything! Weirdly doesn't really mention Joseph Campbell or dive into the structure of story creation very much but still a really great listen!
    • 5/5
      An informative romp through the theory and science of why people enjoy telling and hearing stories. I learned some new stuff, and enjoyed hearing things I already knew framed in this context. If you enjoy science, or storytelling, or the science of storytelling, I think there is much to be enjoyed here.
    • 4/5
      Well-written compilation of diverse research findings bearing upon the purpose and function of stories. Author's use of his children and their experience adds a personal dimension that resonates with my experience as father and grandfather even while preserving the broad view of studies and experiments necessary for a work like this.
    • 5/5
      Interesting overview of the many elements apart of the stories and how it affects us as humans- and makes us human.
    • 1/5
      The author is a father - congratulations! He will not shut up about it. The rest of the book reads like a blog or a dream diary.

      Was there a point to this other than making everyone feel good about themselves for spending a 100 hours a week watching TV and playing games?
    • 4/5
      An interesting look at the importance and role of storytelling from a wide-range of fields--neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology. It was thought-provoking and delightfully entertaining. Unfortunately, I didn't think that he examined some of his conclusions closely enough.
    • 4/5
      Well-written compilation of diverse research findings bearing upon the purpose and function of stories. Author's use of his children and their experience adds a personal dimension that resonates with my experience as father and grandfather even while preserving the broad view of studies and experiments necessary for a work like this.
    • 3/5
      The book itself is interesting but God almighty could narrators PLEASE stop putting on accents/voices?! Listening to a grown adult man read in a child voice is unpleasant. Also I sincerely doubt this narrator has ever heard a genuine British accent. Please, just read the text.
    • 3/5
      It had some interesting points, but nothing really "grabbed" me. I like Clarissa Pinkola Estes take on storytelling more.
    • 4/5
      How stories are told has changed over time, from a group of hunter-gatherers listening to a storyteller around a fire to online role-playing games, but they're all stories. At the core, they're all about characters adapting and dealing with uncomfortable situations. As an exploration of the innate human need for stories, this book is pretty good. It's a nice, short overview. I see that as one of its strengths. By avoiding the analytical weeds, it presents the basic ideas about human relationship with stories quite clearly.
    • 4/5
      An interesting look at the importance and role of storytelling from a wide-range of fields--neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology. It was thought-provoking and delightfully entertaining. Unfortunately, I didn't think that he examined some of his conclusions closely enough.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable and interesting especially for those involved in writing or studying fiction.
    • 3/5
      This was a really neat, thought-provoking books.
    • 3/5
      I found this book to be readable, enjoyable, but ultimately lacking depth. I'd read a couple of writing books that discussed how the human brain was attracted to stories, but those books were aimed more towards writing stories that would play to that attraction. I was hoping that Gottschall would explain the attraction itself. Instead, he described the attraction. So there are detours into describing religions as stories that inspire people's real-life actions, that conspiracy theories are the need for story and meaning gone to an extreme, and that MMORPGs and LARPs may be the beginnings of a form of story that may seem more attractive than real life. All of which was interesting to read, but frustrating. As the book went on, I wanted to know if the need for story is equally strong in everyone, or are there people who are "astory"? Gottschall mentions, almost in passing, that people who are more realistic about their lives and less likely to make themselves the heroes of their own stories are more prone to depression, but that was about it. And the book was surprisingly short, winding up at the 63% point in my Kindle (the remaining 37% seems to be acknowledgements, notes, bibliography, etc.). Basically, I'd thought this book would focus on the science behind story. I was disappointed that it didn't do so as much as I'd hoped, but I still thought it was entertaining.
    • 2/5
      As a professional oral storyteller for 17 years, I was ready to nerd out. It was pretty boring, and I found the narrator's bland delivery (with some odd emphases) annoying. Did not finish.
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