January 21, 2025
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Book review: The secret of why stories are passed down through generations
Storytelling is part of being human. In this nonfiction book, you will learn why and how such stories can become a trap.
nonfiction
The story brain: The stories our neurons tell us
Written by Fritz Breithaupt.
Yale University Press, 2025 ($35)
Humans are storytelling animals. As soon as we can speak, we tell our lives and include classic characters in our stories: heroes, leaders, and villains. in story brainIn , cognitive scientist Fritz Breithaupt explores why we represent the world in stories and how the rewards of narrative thinking keep us spinning.
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Despite its title, there is little content story brain This is about biological wetware: the neurons and synapses that enable storytelling. Breithaupt is less interested in the results of brain scans than in how stories evolve as they move between storytellers, and what that evolution reveals about the story’s purpose.
Breithaupt’s research is based on a “telephone game” study in which participants are asked to tell a story in their own words, which is then passed on to others who do the same. These ongoing exchanges, he argues, help explain what stories do for us. The disjointed narrative becomes more coherent and logical as it progresses, showing how storytelling can bring meaning and order to a complex and chaotic world. However, the emotional thrust of the story remains largely the same no matter how many times it is told, suggesting that the emotions it evokes (e.g., the joy when a botched romance turns out well) are at the core of the story’s appeal. I’m doing it. We tell our lives and inhale stories about other lives for much the same reason we frequent bars and poker rooms: the excitement of expected reward.
In response to the voice of Jonathan Gottschall, author of story paradox (Basic Books, 2021), Breithaupt warns that a reliance on stories, no matter how fulfilling, can close off possibilities outside of your favorite stories. When we play ourselves as victims, we are tempted to stay in that role, and when we want to believe that epic justice will prevail, we may not be able to accept a reality that leans in a different direction. there is.
Still, Breithaupt remains an optimist. Our knack for storytelling is what drives us to master what he calls “playability,” or expressing infinite possible futures in story form, and that is why we He claims that it can help predict and plan the best possible future. “Stories can be the medium of our unhappiness, but they can also be a means of escape from it,” he writes. He gives few details on how to accomplish this escape. Unlike the classic stories that inspired it, story brain It is not built to a clear resolution. But its highly liberating nature, its invitation to reconsider inappropriate narratives, provides a timely corrective to our ferocious desire for certainty.
