Jonathan Gottschall

species addicted story body sleep

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

storytelling mind allergic uncertain random meaning

“The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence. It is addicted to meaning. If the storytelling mind cannot find meaningful patterns in the world, it will try to impose them. In short, the storytelling mind is a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will manufacture lies when it can’t.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

litterature feelings free

“Literature offers feelings for which we don’t have to pay. It allows us to love, condemn, condone, hope, dread, and hate without any of the risks those feelings ordinarily involve.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

paradox fiction aristotle pleasure unpleasant threat death

“There is a paradox in fiction that was first noticed by Aristotle in the Poetics. We are drawn to fiction because fiction gives us pleasure. But most of what is actually in fiction is deeply unpleasant: threat, death, despair, anxiety, Sturm und Drang.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

nonfiction shields critical absorbed story guard defenseless

“When we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to leave us defenseless.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

fiction virtual reality VR simulate human problem

“Fiction is an ancient virtual reality technology that specializes in simulating human problems.”

― Jonathan Gottschall

story character predicament exitation

“Story = Character + Predicament + Attempted Extrication”

― Jonathan Gottschall