Jonathan Gottschall

A New York Times Editor's Choice A Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalist "A jaunty, insightful new book . . . [that] draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us."-- New York TimesHumans 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. Now 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 and explains how stories can change the world for the better. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us."This is a quite wonderful book. It grips the reader with both stories and stories about the telling of stories, then pulls it all together to explain why storytelling is a fundamental human instinct."--Edward O. Wilson"Charms with anecdotes and examples . . . we have not left nor should we ever leave Neverland."-- Cleveland Plain Dealer

An English professor begins training in the sport of mixed martial arts and explores the science and history behind the violence of men.When a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym moves in across the street from his office, Jonathan Gottschall sees a challenge, and an opportunity. Pushing forty, out of shape, and disenchanted with his job as an adjunct English professor, part of him yearns to cross the street and join up. The other part is terrified. Gottschall eventually works up his nerve, and starts training for a real cage fight. He’s fighting not only as a personal test but also to answer questions that have intrigued him for years: Why do men fight? And why do so many seemingly decent people like to watch?In The Professor in the Cage, Gottschall’s unlikely journey from the college classroom to the fighting cage drives an important new investigation into the science and history of violence. Mixed martial arts is a full-contact hybrid sport in which fighters punch, choke, and kick each other into submission. MMA requires intense strength, endurance, and skill; the fights are bloody, brutal, and dangerous. Yet throughout the last decade, cage fighting has evolved from a small-time fringe spectacle banned in many states to the fastest-growing spectator sport in America.But the surging popularity of MMA, far from being new, is just one more example of our species’ insatiable interest not just in violence but in the rituals that keep violence contained. From duels to football to the roughhousing of children, humans are masters of what Gottschall calls the monkey dance: a dizzying variety of rule-bound contests that establish hierarchies while minimizing risk and social disorder. In short, Gottschall entered the cage to learn about the violence in men, but learned instead how men keep violence in check.Gottschall endures extremes of pain, occasional humiliation, and the incredulity of his wife to take us into the heart of fighting culture—culminating, after almost two years of grueling training, in his own cage fight. Gottschall’s unsparing personal journey crystallizes in his epiphany, and ours, that taming male violence through ritualized combat has been a hidden key to the success of the human race. Without the restraining codes of the monkey dance, the world would be a much more chaotic and dangerous place.

Storytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may soon destroy itHumans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.In The Story Paradox, Gottschall explores how a broad consortium of psychologists, communications specialists, neuroscientists, and literary quants are using the scientific method to study how stories affect our brains. The results challenge the idea that storytelling is an obvious force for good in human life. Yes, storytelling can bind groups together, but it is also the main force dragging people apart. And it’s the best method we’ve ever devised for manipulating each other by circumventing rational thought. Behind all civilization’s greatest ills—environmental destruction, runaway demagogues, warfare—you will always find the same master factor: a mind-disordering story.Gottschall argues that societies succeed or fail depending on how they manage these tensions. And it has only become harder, as new technologies that amplify the effects of disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and fake news make separating fact from fiction nearly impossible.With clarity and conviction, Gottschall reveals why our biggest asset has become our greatest threat, and what, if anything, can be done. It is a call to stop asking, “How we can change the world through stories?” and start asking, “How can we save the world from stories?”

Homer's epics reflect an eighth-century BCE world of warrior tribes that were fractured by constant strife; aside from its fantastic scale, nothing is exceptional about Troy's conquest by the Greeks. Using a fascinating and innovative approach, Professor Gottschall analyses Homeric conflict from the perspective of modern evolutionary biology, attributing its intensity to a shortage of available young women. The warrior practice of taking enemy women as slaves and concubines meant that women were concentrated in the households of powerful men. In turn, this shortage drove men to compete fiercely over women: almost all the main conflicts of the Iliad and Odyssey can be traced back to disputes over women. The Rape of Troy integrates biological and humanistic understanding - biological theory is used to explore the ultimate sources of pitched Homeric conflict, and Homeric society is the subject of a bio-anthropological case study of why men fight.

Literary studies are at a tipping point. ." There is broad agreement that the discipline is in "crisis" - that it is aimless, that its intellectual energy is spent, that all of the trends are bad, and that fundamental change will be required to set things right. But there is little agreement on what those changes should be, and no one can predict which way things will ultimately tip. Literature, Science, and a New Humanities represents a bold new response to the crisis in academic literary studies. This book presents a total challenge to dominant paradigms of literary analysis and offers a sweeping critique of those paradigms, and sketches outlines of a new paradigm inspired by scientific theories, methods, and attitudes.

"Mesmo quando o corpo vai dormir, a mente fica acordada toda a noite, a contar histórias a si própria."Vivemos em paisagens de faz-de-conta. Criamos fantasias. Devoramos romances, filmes e peças de teatro. Até os acontecimentos desportivos e os julgamentos criminais se desenrolam como narrativas. No entanto, o mundo das histórias permaneceu durante muito tempo território por descobrir e mapear. Com base em pesquisas em neurociência, psicologia e biologia evolutiva, Jonathan Gottschall apresenta-nos a primeira teoria unificada do storytelling, revelando o que significa ser um animal contador de histórias.Sabia que quanto mais absorvidos estivermos por uma história, mais ela altera o nosso comportamento? Que todas as crianças encenam o mesmo tipo de histórias, quer cresçam num bairro de lata ou num subúrbio? E que o nosso instinto de contar histórias tem, também, um lado mais negro, tornando-nos vulneráveis a teorias da conspiração?As histórias podem mudar o mundo, ensinando-nos a viver e unindo-nos em torno de valores comuns. Sabemos que somos mestres em narrativas, e este livro revela como as histórias nos moldam.Os elogios da crí"O nosso pensador mais profundo sobre o papel poderoso das histórias nas nossas vidas."Steven Pinker, autor bestseller"Um livro que explica porque gostamos de contar histórias, e porque somos tão propensos a distorcer a verdade quando o fazemos." The Atlantic "Com base em cantos díspares da história e da ciência, eis um livro que celebra a nossa compulsão para historiar tudo à nossa volta." The New York Times "Storytelling é um deleite de ler. Infinitamente interessante, repleto de excelentes observações e ideias inteligentes sobre televisão, livros, filmes, videojogos, sonhos, crianças, loucura, evolução, moralidade, amor e muito mais. Muito bem escrito - o que não surpreende, já que Jonathan Gottschall é, ele próprio, um contador de histórias habilidoso."Paul Bloom, Universidade de Yale"Este é um livro maravilhoso. Cativa o leitor com histórias e histórias sobre como contar histórias, e depois junta tudo para explicar porque é que fazê-lo é um instinto humano fundamental."Edward O. Wilson, Universidade de Harvard"Uma obra de filosofia popular e teoria social escrita por um professor universitário obviamente brilhante. O dom do exemplo está em todo o lado, e em quase todas as páginas surge uma ideia fundamental." The San Francisco Chronicle "Qualquer pessoa que se tenha interrogado sobre a razão pela qual as histórias nos afetam da forma como o fazem encontrará neste livro fascinante uma nova apreciação do nosso desejo coletivo de sermos encantados." BookPage