Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Future of Story

During the first ten minutes of class, write your summary of Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Future of Story in your notebook. Also, write about the other ways that you experience story. Think about some of the examples that Gottschall mentions in this chapter. Before our next class, post your summary/discussion as a comment on this post.

8 thoughts on “Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal, The Future of Story

  1. Jennifer Huerta

    Neverland is our special habitat. We are attracted to Neverland because it is good for us it provides our imaginations; it reinforces moral behavior, it gives us safe worlds to practice inside. Story is the glue of human social life. People dream and fantasize. The way we experience story on television does seem to be changing, but television in the main is a story delivery technology. Reality programming is the sign of the end of fiction if not civilization. Reality shows are hardly nonfiction. Reality show producers try to instigate as much dramatic conflict as possible. Together with teams of editors, reality show writers take raw footage and twist it into classic story lines. Good fiction tells intensely truthful lies. Reality shows are not nonfiction, they are just a new kind of fiction, in which lies and distortions happen mainly in the editing room, not the writing room. I experience story through photography or music. They both have a story behind it whether it is the photograph telling it or the music.

  2. Sreyes2

    I find it pretty interesting that fiction does affect our learning process because it not only prepares us for challenges that we may face but it also can teach us about our own reality. Stories now in days are being told through video games,music and also books that is mostly showing us all that we must continue to pursue dreams no matter in which form they come out to show themselves even if they represent themselves differently.As we previously learned though fiction is the main force of learning years of different stories and education that permit us to grow both stronger and maybe even weaker in the emotional state as well as the physical state.with stories people hold their lives together and we tend to live much more happily being this way believing in many different theories and such.

  3. Asha

    In this chapter of Jonathan Gottschall’s “The Story Telling Animal”, Mr. Gottschall talks about how the input of fiction in our lives affect the way learn and process in which we use newly learned information. He talks about the various different ways stories are being told in the present day. One way which he spoke about truly intrigued me. Video Games. The usage of video games in story telling truly projects how with time we have learned to integrate advancements with traditional things such as story telling. To answer the question given to us in class about the ways in which we can see or tell stories differently, I believe stories can be visually seen in acting via tone, facial expression and body language of the character. These tools help us analyze the character’s importance in the scene and/or scenario and how their presence might alter the theoretical timeline being created. I also believe story can be seen in other forms of performing arts such as dance and art. A painting captivates a thousand words and tells a hundred different stories while being inanimate whereas dance can tell a story with the dancers movement, synchronization with the beat, and facial expression. Lyrical Choreography would be a great example of how dance can tell a story.

  4. JulesJ

    The chapter ” The Future of Story” from “The Storytelling Animals” penned by Jonathan Gottschall, call attention to the fact that story gives free rein to our imagination, we are character of neverland. However, many people such as David Shields believe that fiction is losing the position that it used to occupy in our lives. In Shields’s point of view fiction is disintegrating, whereas Gottschall asserts that story is not a stage of disparition, it is in fact in a state of evolution. According to Gottschall the concept that story is becoming a vanishing specie, is absolutely false. The writer is convinced that story is taking another level, it is progressing and converting to the form of song,video games, and TV shows. The author also affirms that the true menace that we should worry about is not that fact that story might be evaporating from our lives but the fact that it might be a source of future domination.

  5. KelvinG

    In this chapter it teaches us we all learn threw stories, and it also made me realize we are being told stories everyday and don’t really notice it. One way we are being told a story is when we play video games , with video games like destiny it gives you a fiction story in which it allows us to have a big imagination to make such a video game. We also experience stories threw music , art , dance and many different other forms. i believe i experience stories threw music more then anything since i am really into music. I feel for me its a better form of understanding because you are being told the story by the author there self and with the rhythm of the music you get to understand how they want you to feel. Its a bit harder for me to experience a story threw art because although you understand what is the message its harder to understand what is it they want you to feel. I also learn that fiction in general teaches us many things , i believe without fiction we won’t be able to create the many characters in books and movies , and video games. Fiction gives us a sense of free mind.

  6. Sheldon.B

    In this chapter of the story telling animal, we get to dive into the future of story. We begin to learn about how certain stories affect how we act and even affects how we see things. We experience stories through various things such as music, movies and even video games. These stories then allows us to create even more stories and they literally give us a number of ideas and helps us to expand our imagination. I just find it interesting that fiction teaches us a lot of things.

  7. a.sadaf

    In this chapter of The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall, we read the future of story.
    Fiction helps us in our learning process just as much as anything else. Other than through reading, stories are told through many different things. Some of these things are, photography, music, and even video games. It does not stop there. Stories are delivered by a variety of ways. My favorite way of hearing stories is through movies. It makes me feel like a part of the story.

  8. Nick

    In the chapter the future of story, Jonathan Gottschall talks about fiction changes our daily lives. When we see fiction in our daily lives we usually think “what if that can happen to us in real life?” There’s always a limit to what we can do so we enjoy seeing other people achieve what we can’t do. There are many ways these fiction stories are being told in like video games. We play video games because its fun. In the game we get to do things that we will never do in real life for example, Grand Theft Auto. In broad daylight there’s no way you can just walk around stealing cars and shooting people like nothing is happening. People enjoy playing it because it’s such a fiction game. Other ways stories are being told is music and movies. They also have many cool and great things happening in the movie that people think wouldn’t normally happen to their life.

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